A Cracked and Clouded Mirror
by justaskalice
Summary: A shadowy vision portends the end of everything, unless one small, insignificant girl can turn the tide. AU.
1. Chapter 1

_My sweet girl,_

_I hope by now I have impressed upon you the seriousness of my designs. This is no mere preoccupation or passing fancy. I am determined, having seen the bright way you shine, that you will be mine. I have others with a similar glow about them, but never in such a lovely creature. You are a prize specimen, of great talent and worth._

_Do not question that you are made for greater things, Isabella. That is certain. Your destiny may not be unique, but it is great, and from you will spring a new world. That world is full of boundless possibilities, and you should be proud to be selected as one of its forebearers. There can be no greater honor in this life._

_Reflect upon my words, beloved. Believe them. And when I come to you, do not resist me. No doubt you will be hearing from me soon._

||X||

When she saw the now-familiar PO Box address on the front of the envelope, Bella's blood ran cold. She almost didn't open it, thinking of the two letters that now sat on her desk and their odd words about destiny and power. These fond and disturbing words from an unknown admirer frightened her, and they filled her with a dull kind of dread. To think, she used to love getting mail.

This letter seemed to escalate the vague threats contained in the others. _And when I come to you, do not resist me_. She shivered, dropping the waxy parchment to the floor and crossing her arms across her chest. Living on her own had never bothered her before; in fact, she always used to relish the freedom. When her police chief father had warned her about the dangers of being a young woman and alone, she had chalked his fears up to outmoded and old-fashioned thinking, and a predisposition for seeing danger everywhere. Now, with this third delivery in a week, her small apartment, with its comfortable, if cheap furnishings, and brightly painted walls seemed more like a cage than a home. She glanced toward the front door, checking the deadbolt for the fifth time in an hour.

With that reflexive glance at the lock, her temper flared. "This is ridiculous," she muttered. She kicked at the letter as she turned and stomped to her desk to boot up her laptop, determined to get some answers. She called the police station first. She knew she didn't have nearly enough information for a restraining order, but hoped to at least get the ball rolling on a formal complaint. The officer on phone duty that night, however, told that without an identity, little could be done to stop whoever was harassing her. She was encouraged to call back or come in once she had a name to go with her creepy letters.

Next, she called the post office, thinking she could sweet talk someone on the other end into giving her a name or a description. Instead of a person on the other end of the line, however, she got an endless menu of options and recorded messages.

"If you are calling to check on the status of a delivery, please press or say one now."

"If you're an automated voice whose sole purpose is to waste my time, press one now," she muttered back.

"I'm sorry," answered the jerky, female voice. "I didn't understand that. If you are calling to check on the status of a delivery, please press or say one now."

She almost threw her phone across the room, but recognized that would do nothing to solve her problem.

After ten minutes and as many menus, she gave up on speaking to a live person, dropping her phone on the couch and scrubbing her hands over her face in frustration. She exhaled sharply, shifting in her desk chair a little so she could see the firmly secured deadbolt again. The discarded letter sat in front of the door, slightly crumpled and face down.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said to the letter, standing swiftly and striding toward the door. She stooped to pick it up and smoothed out the wrinkles in the parchment the best she could, sliding it into its envelope. Purse and keys in hand she faced the door with a look of stoic fearlessness. A simple flick of her wrist later, and the deadbolt was unlocked. She yanked the door back, steeling herself for the sight that had greeted her when she returned from class two hours before. There, almost completely covering the gaudy orange welcome mat her mother had insisted she buy for her new apartment, was a giant vase full of flowers. The scent of them almost knocked her back, and it was clear from the perfumed air in the hall that they had been sitting there for some time. Sticking out of the blooms on a plastic holder was a small, white envelope that simply said 'Beloved.'

"No, no, no, no," she chanted. The door clicked shut behind her, and she side-stepped the arrangement, not giving it a second glance as she made her way down the hall. At the front desk, she asked the security guard to have them removed, ensuring they would be gone by the time she returned.

There was a new spring in her step as she left the flowers behind. If she couldn't speak to someone on the phone, then she was determined to go to the post office in person.

She briefly considered calling one of her parents for advice, but quickly concluded that would cause more problems than it was worth. Charlie would rage and worry, and probably tell her that this was why he never wanted her living so close to Chicago. To Chief Swan, big cities were anathemas, and the people who chose to live there were suspect. Renee would likely swing the exact opposite direction, speculating on a courtly, old-fashioned secret admirer and demanding details with a girlish, gushing giggle. Neither reaction was helpful.

Besides her parents, there wasn't anyone Bella could call on for advice-not about something like this anyway. The people in her social group, fellow students and coworkers at the campus sandwich shop, weren't so much friends as people who coexisted in her space. It wasn't intentional, but she simply didn't go out of her way to invite people into her life, and as a result, she had very few, if any, real friends. Her mother called her shy, her crueler female classmates threw around words like "bitch" and "stuck-up." Something about her pushed people away. Bella always figured it was just that she was different—she simply didn't function on the same wavelength as everyone else.

Most of the time it suited her well. She liked the solitude of her apartment, and her random interactions with coworkers and classmates were enough to stave off any loneliness she might have felt. But it was times like these, when she was worried, or scared, or angry, that she wished she had someone she could rely on. The desire for a confidant irked her, not least because her independence streak was about a mile wide. Even as a child she had been self-reliant. She could clearly remember getting herself ready on her first day of kindergarten, braiding her hair, assembling her outfit, packing her lunch, and walking by herself to the bus stop.

The post office was predictably crowded for a Monday afternoon, and Bella found herself at the end of a long line of people, some with packages to mail, others there for stamps or other sundry chores. Her eyes wandered to the wall of PO Boxes along the far wall, labeled with small black numbers. Anonymous, cheap, and easy to obtain. That part of the puzzle confused her—why use any return address at all? Was she meant to take this step, to track him down? The thought that all this might be some kind of trap made her uneasy, but not knowing scared her more.

She tugged at the end of her sleeves and willed the line to move faster. The young man at the counter seemed to be moving purposefully slow, smiling and making small talk with the customers as they reached the front of the line. She scowled, only briefly noting that for a public servant, he was quite handsome.

The line inched forward for what seemed like hours, until finally, it was her turn. She crossed the narrow strip of linoleum that separated the line from the counter and dropped the letter in front of the young man. He picked up it, glancing at her quizzically.

"How can I help you, ma'am?" She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the 'ma'am', even though the boy looked to be about her age.

"I need to know who owns the PO Box that keeps sending me letters. I got this one today. It's creepy, and it needs to stop."

"Well, ma'am," here she made a disgusted sort of sigh, "I can't really give you that information."

"Look, kid," she snapped, grabbing her letter back off the counter.

"Edward," he corrected calmly.

"Fine. _Edward. _I'm being harassed by some spooky, skeezy, unknown stranger. Are you really standing there telling me you can't tell me who it is that owns that box?"

His eyes narrowed, but his tone didn't change. "Not unless you're with law enforcement, or you have a court order or a subpoena. Do any of those things apply to your situation, _ma'am_?"

"No." She glared at him, but he crossed his arms and smiled blandly, apparently unfazed. "Look, I'm not making this up. See for yourself."

His eyebrows lifted slightly, and he frowned down at the envelope, turning it over in his hands. His fingers toyed with the ripped edges on the top of the envelope, and one folded corner peeked out.

She waved her hand. "Go ahead. Read it."

He pulled it out with a small flourish, snapping the letter open and laying it flat on the counter. His lips formed the words silently as he read, and Bella stared at her feet, not interested in witnessing his reaction to the strange words. She reassured herself by telling herself that he was a postal worker, and he probably saw weirder things than her letter every day.

"Huh."

She lifted her head and looked up at him. He was chewing on his bottom lip, head tilted slightly to the side. "Well?" she asked impatiently, after he didn't say anything else.

"Maybe you should call the police," he suggested. "They can do more for you than we can."

"I already called the police," she growled, her frustration with him mounting. "What, do you think I'm an idiot? My dad has been on the force my whole life. I called the police first thing."

"There's no need to shout, ma'am," he said quietly, a slight edge working its way into his voice. "I was merely suggesting—"

"Right. You were merely suggesting, I get it. The police told me that they can't do anything without a name. I tried calling your phone number but apparently you guys don't actually ever answer your phones, unless it's with some sort of prerecorded message, and now you're telling me that after I dragged my butt all the way down here, you can't help me. At all."

"Correct." The word was short and clipped. "I can't break the law because you have a secret admirer."

"Well, that's just _great_," she spat. She stuffed the envelope in her purse and stormed away from the counter, leaving Edward scowling after her.

"Have a nice day," he muttered. He watched her leave, hips swinging slightly, long brown hair flying out behind her. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and turned back to the line. It had been a long day, and the angry brunette wasn't the first to yell at him that day. Thankfully, there was a momentary lull in the hubbub of the main floor, and no one was waiting in front of his station.

He thought back to the letter the woman had brought and shivered. He knew that his answer had been legal and correct, but she was right—the whole situation was creepy. Curious, he turned to the computer next to him and brought up the PO Box system. He wasn't technically supposed to go poking around in the records, but he had access to them. He logged in and had just typed in the number on the box, 139, when the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted him.

He jumped guiltily, and looked up to find a petite woman standing in front of the counter, staring at him intently. "Excuse me," she said quietly, "but could you help me, please?"

Her voice was high and musical, almost sing-song in quality. She was beautiful, but there was something slightly off-putting about the direct way she looked at him. It could have been the strange, golden hue of her eyes, or the fact that despite her youthful and energetic appearance, something about the way she tapped her foot seemed practiced and somewhat forced. Despite appearances, she didn't look impatient.

"Of course," he said, shaking himself from his stupor. "I'm sorry. How can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you carry the commemorative 'Year of the Tiger' stamps and notecard sets," she said sweetly. She smiled up at him, white teeth gleaming, and Edward felt a strange chill work its way through his body. His stomach felt like a lump of ice.

"Uh, I think so," he said, trying to cover up his discomfort with professionalism. "Let me check in the back. I've only got the 'forever' stamps and the everyday stuff up here."

She nodded absently and turned to survey the room. He felt more comfortable when she wasn't looking at him, although he couldn't quite fight the feeling that he should put distance between himself and the waiflike woman. He cast a longing glance at the computer screen, which had pulled up the information about the PO Box from earlier, but his need to get rid of the unsettling stamp buyer sent him back to fetch the item she was looking for. It took him several minutes to locate the commemorative sets, as they had come out several months earlier and demand had fallen off.

The real stamp freaks ordered their special editions online, although every once in a while a collector, lugging a thick binder full of plastic, hermetically sealed pages full of dusty stamps, came in looking for something specific. The postal workers could usually smell them coming a mile away, and it was a race to see who could be too busy to help when they came in.

"Here you are, ma'am," he said, sliding the booklet across the counter. She was looking away, but turned and flashed another bright smile at him.

"Thank you, Edward," she said quickly, dropping exact change on the counter. "Have a nice day."

"You, too," he answered, scooping up the cash and dropping it in the till. She scurried away, almost skipping in her haste to leave the building. He stared after her, trying to figure out what about her was so strange. She couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen years old, but something in her eyes suggested someone much older. He realized with a start that she had called him by his name. He hadn't mentioned his name to her, he was sure of it.

"Weird," he said to himself, before remembering his search for the PO Box. He turned back to the monitor, only to find that the screen was blank. "Damn it." He hit a few keys, but the system seemed to have completely shut down. He sighed and rebooted, fingers clicking against the keys as he worked his way back through the system. Only this time when he reached the screen for post office box 139—

"Nothing."

He frowned at the screen, backed out, and went back in. The result was the same. He shrugged it off, telling himself that there was probably nothing there to begin with. Maybe the subscription had expired, or whoever sold the box had entered it wrong. It wasn't unheard of. He hadn't gotten a close look at the screen before, after all. Likely nothing had changed.

He exited the records system and logged out, intending to run to to break room for a cup of coffee before returning to his spot behind the counter. As he turned to go, he glanced out at the street beyond the glass doors. Ordinary people moved to and fro, some of them rushing into the post office before it closed, others just walking blindly by. The scene was strikingly normal, until something caught his eye. Amidst the chaos, still as a statue, was the tiny stamp collector. Her face was impassive, staring through the revolving glass doors toward him. Looking _at _him. He remembered how close she had been standing to the computer, and how carefully she looked away when he returned with her purchases. His intuition, which was usually incredibly helpful in situations like these, flickered. Her eyes widened minutely as she realized she'd been caught, and he knew if he didn't act quickly, she would be gone. He bolted for the employee exit that led out into the lobby, hoping he could catch the mysterious woman before she got too far. She was short, after all, and her legs weren't long enough to let her run more than a half a block before he got outside.

He pushed through the small crowd in the lobby, nearly running into one woman as he shouldered through the revolving door. He was breathless when he got out into the glaring April sunlight, taking short, shallow gasps as he stood with his hands on his hips, surveying the street.

The woman had vanished.

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><p><strong>AN**: **It's been a year since I've written anything, but I'm back! This story is my first foray into AU, and it's very different from my usual AH fluff and drama drama. Be prepared for a darker and more plotty fic. Big thanks go out to hmonster4 and BittenBee for beta tough love, and katinki01 and daisy3853 for prereading and comments. I'm anticipating a once a week update schedule. Thanks for reading! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own very little.**

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><p>Over the next several days, Edward Masen did his best to forget about his encounter with the disgruntled brunette and the strangely intimidating stamp collector. He threw himself into the mind-numbing routine of daily living.<p>

Every morning he woke up in his Lake Forest studio apartment, completely alone but for his cat, a tubby, female calico which had inexplicably been named 'Howard' by the local humane society. He'd hit the snooze button on his alarm clock two times before caving in to Howie's loud demands for dried cat kibble. After stumbling to the kitchen and refilling her water bowl, he took a five minute shower, dressed, and brushed his teeth. Eight hours of seemingly unending customer service at the post office were followed by a quick, unappetizing meal and one or two hours of whatever cookie cutter crime drama was playing that night. After feeding Howie her dinner, he'd fall into bed and get ready to repeat the whole thing the next day. There was no thought involved, no effort.

This solitary existence suited Edward. He preferred it that way, mostly because he had a hard time trusting new people. From a young age, he'd had a strong sense of the true nature of the world, and had understood that most everyone had an agenda of some kind. Lies and deceit were disturbingly common. A person's voiced intentions and actual purposes rarely matched up.

His intuition was hardly ever wrong, even when he prayed it would be. It was how, at the age of seventeen, he knew that the doctor who told him, with a sad, slow smile, that his parents would probably recover from their pneumonia was lying. It was how he knew to install a lock on his bedroom door at that first, grim foster home he had lived, at least a week before his new foster father came home drunk and violent. And it was how he knew that somehow, the angry brunette and the mysterious raven haired girl were connected.

He caught himself staring absently at the wall of PO Boxes any number of times that week. Every time he caught himself staring, he shook himself. The girl and her letters from nowhere were none of his business. But the uneasy feeling he got every time he thought of her didn't fade, and his constant self-reproach didn't stop him from pulling up the records on PO Box 139 at least once a day. The record remained blank, the cursor blinking innocently on the line labeled "Recipient's Name," and no amount of checking or rechecking changed that.

On Thursday, he broke down and paid a visit to the back room where the security guards took turns watching the three live feeds stationed around the post office. He purposefully waited until Max, an older man who often said that Edward reminded him of his son, was doing camera duty. Edward timed his break so that they would be assured at least twenty minutes of uninterrupted by the other guards. He grabbed two cups of coffee and strolled into the security room, smiling broadly as he entered.

"Hey, Max," he said warmly. "Thought you might like some coffee. You looked like you were lagging earlier."

"You're one to talk," the older man snorted, accepting the offered cup. "Still yawning like you just woke up at two in the afternoon. You know, my daughter-in-law says that caffeine is a gateway drug." He wrinkled his nose. "She's one of those all-natural types. Says it pollutes your body."

"Well, here's to pollution." Edward laughed and raised his cup. "If coffee is wrong, I don't want to be right."

"Amen," muttered Max, taking a sip and sighing with satisfaction. "Say, Edward, when are you going to get yourself a girl and settle down? My son's only a couple years older than you, and he's happily married. Expecting their first baby in June."

"You know me, I like the single life." Edward shrugged uneasily. He had never really had a girlfriend, but neither was he promiscuous. In fact, at the age of twenty-one, he was still a virgin. The idea of any kind of commitment left him feeling ambivalent at best. His parents had shared an intense, desperate kind of love, two parts of one whole. In a way, it hadn't been a surprise that they died within days of each other. One couldn't exist without the other. In his year of foster care, he'd witnessed his share of another kind of marriage—the kind fueled by anger and bitterness, sharp words and flying fists. It seemed to him like love could only be one or the other: give yourself up entirely, or wind up cynical and beaten down. He didn't want either. "Maybe I'm not the marrying kind."

"Oh, now," Max scoffed. "I don't believe that for a second. You just need to find yourself the right woman."

"I'm sure you're right," he conceded, not seeing the point in continuing the argument. Glancing up at the monitors in front of Max's desk, he cleared his throat and tried to casually redirect the conversation. "You must see some funny stuff on these cameras, huh?"

"Funny?" Max looked surprised. "I guess, mostly because people don't realize they're on camera. Why do you ask?"

"Can you keep a secret?" Max's face lit up and he nodded and leaned forward, and Edward knew it had been the right tack to try. He felt a little guilty for manipulating the old man, but his curiosity wouldn't let him give up now. "A couple of days ago, a girl came in asking about a letter she got from one of the PO Boxes here."

Max laughed. "I shoulda known it was about a girl." Edward rolled his eyes, but smiled at Max's teasing. "Was she pretty?"

"Hm? Oh. I guess so." The question had surprised him, but after a few moments' thought, remembering the curve of her hips and the bright way her eyes seemed to flash even when she was ticked off, he nodded and said, "Yeah, she was definitely pretty."

"Alright," Max continued with a broad smile. "And what did this pretty girl need?"

"She brought in one of the letters, and it was... disturbing. Really creepy, stalker kind of stuff. Obviously, my hands were tied. I couldn't tell her anything. But I checked, and we don't have a record of the box holder's name. I guess I wanted to take a peek at the security feed and see..."

"If you can find out who the sender is," Max finished. He looked at Edward doubtfully. "I don't know, son, sounds like a needle in a haystack situation. How are you even going to know _when_ to look?"

Edward shrugged helplessly and stared down at his cup. "I don't know. I just thought maybe I'd check, you know? It was a bad idea." He let his shoulders sink dejectedly, knowing that the older man had a soft spot for him.

"Well..." Max wavered, and Edward could hear the indecision in his voice. "Okay. But I don't know what you think you're going to do even if you do find something out. You still can't tell anyone. Got any idea on when you want to start?"

Edward immediately spit out the date the most recent letter was post-marked. Max smiled wryly and shook his head. "Alright, kid. I'll pull those tapes and you can sneak a peek tonight after you finish your shift. But I want everything back in its place by morning. I'm not gonna get fired just so you can be a hero and rescue a damsel in distress."

He snorted at the comparison between the fiery brunette and some helpless, fairy tale princess, but nodded anyway. "I won't get you in trouble, I promise."

That night, at 5:05, the doors locked and the rest of the employees out of the way for the evening, Edward snuck back to the security room. As Max promised, the tapes from the entire day the that Edward requested were pulled. He allowed himself a small chuckle as he eyed up the stack of VHS. Of course the government was too cheap to switch to digital.

As he popped in the first tape, he thought about what Max had said. What _did _he think he was going to be able to accomplish here? The likelihood of anyone being on the tape was almost zero. Even if he did see someone, he'd be at the same dead end. No name, no ability to share anything that he found with the girl without breaking the law. He didn't even know how to get a hold of her. He remembered her first name from the letter—Isabella. It seemed wrong for her, too stiff and formal, almost pretentious. Then again, it was a regal name, and she held herself like a queen. Truthfully, she was a little scary, but he wouldn't wish a dangerous admirer on anybody.

Several hours later, his eyes were starting to glaze over, and he hadn't seen any sign of suspicious activity. He was ready to give up. Max was right; the whole thing had been a gigantic waste of time. When he reached for the stop button, though, he saw a flicker of movement in front of the boxes. It was only for a second, and he wasn't even sure what he had seen, but it made him pause.

Hastily, he grabbed the remote and rewound, jamming his finger down on 'play' after a few seconds. There it was again, just a flash, almost a shadow. Rewind. Play. The same, almost indistinguishable flicker.

He hit stop and rubbed his eyes, his brain buzzing uncomfortably. He was tired and imagining things now. It was probably just a trick of the light, or a smudge of dirt on the tape. "This is stupid," he said aloud to the empty room. "I don't even know her." He wasn't sure why this had become so important to him. Despite his proclivity toward crime dramas, he was never one to get involved in a real life mystery. He let other people solve their own problems. That this girl had gotten so thoroughly under his skin in a few short minutes was disturbing.

Standing up, he packed the tapes away as quickly as he could and closed the door behind him with a resounding click that echoed through the empty front hall.

The sun had already set, and a cool wind whistled through the empty city streets as he made his way to his car. It was the only thing he had used the money from his inheritance on, a nondescript silver Volvo that handled like a dream and always started in the cold Illinois winters, unlike the fifteen-year-old Ford Taurus he drove in high school. The rest of the money his parents had left him was still sitting in a bank account in Chicago, slowly gathering interest and dust. He limped by on his paycheck at the post office, living frugally and spending next to nothing.

He had been tempted a couple of times to take the money and do something outrageous, like go on a trip around the world, or even practical, like buy a house or go to college, but in the end, he left it alone. Using the money would be like cutting off his connection with them permanently—the last vestige of their love for him erased forever.

His eyes were sore and his head was pounding, and the thought of another frozen dinner in front of his TV made him slightly sick, so he stopped at a pub to eat instead of heading straight home. He slid into a corner booth and smiled gratefully at the waitress when she dropped off a glass of water, ignoring the flirtatious wink she threw him as she walked away. From the new swing of her hips and the way she tossed her shiny blonde hair over her shoulder, he knew that she was attracted to him. She was sizing him up, and everything from the tilt of her chin to the length of her strides told him so. Maybe she thought she could entice him into sharing a drink after her shift was over, or even lure him back to her place later. He sighed and gulped down his water, determined not to encourage her. She wasn't interested in him, not really. She was interested in his body, his smile, his hair. It didn't matter, in the end.

He ordered without really paying attention to the menu or the waitress, and while he waited for his food, he stared around the tiny pub, seeing but not noticing his fellow customers—until his eyes fell upon the slender brunette standing at the bar. He recognized her disturbingly quickly—just one more indication that he was already far too invested in this girl. She was wedged between two larger men. Despite the crowded bar area, however, she looked isolated, singular.

Without thinking about why he was doing it, he rose from his seat and walked over, gently elbowing one man aside so that he could stand right next to her. She didn't look up, seemingly engrossed in the bottom of her pint of beer. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. She glanced at him, her bored, slantways gaze unreadable in the dim light. Her chestnut hair fell away from her face in sweeping, careless curls.

"What?" she asked, and in her voice he could hear exhaustion and a hint of the annoyance she'd aimed at him earlier that week.

"Um, remember me?" He smiled the kind of smile that would have had the blonde waitress melting on the spot. Isabella just wrinkled her nose in confusion. "From the post office. You brought in a letter." Her confusion cleared, replaced by a flare of anger that made him flinch away instinctively. He swallowed hard, trying to remember why he had come over there in the first place. He couldn't recall making the decision to do it; his feet just led him to her side.

"What do you want?" she barked, and despite the noise of the bar, the large man next to her heard her words and looked over at them curiously. Edward saw his eyes sweep appreciatively over Isabella's slight figure, and he scowled at the large man. A distinctly unladylike snort brought his attention back to her face. "Seriously? You come over here, interrupt my drink, and now you're gonna get up in my face?"

With a start, Edward realized she thought he was glaring at her. His face relaxed instantly. "What? No! I just... wanted to say hi." He paused. "So... hi."

She rolled her eyes and downed the rest of her beer. "Bye."

"Wait!" he cried, grabbing her arm impulsively. They both froze at the contact. Edward felt as if he'd been shocked by a mild electric current, and the startled look in her eye suggested she felt it too. He dropped his hand hastily, and she looked up at him with brown, cautious eyes, crossing her arms across her chest and clutching at her shoulders. "I just wanted... what I mean is..."

"You haven't been following me around by any chance, have you?" she blurted, then snapped her mouth shut as if she hadn't meant to say it.

"No," he said slowly. Her presumption was slightly offensive, and hit a little too close to home. He hadn't followed her, but he'd been thinking about her for days. Then he realized she must have had a reason for asking. "You're being followed?"

"No," she answered quickly, dropping her eyes to the floor. She flinched, whether from his sharp response or from some remembered thought or memory, he couldn't tell. "Maybe. I don't know."

"I looked up the records on that PO Box," he offered when she didn't say anything else. Her head jerked up. "They were blank."

"Blank? Why even use a return address if it's a fake?" She closed her eyes and grimaced, the frustration clear on her face. "Or maybe the account was erased or tampered with somehow? Who all has access to those records? Are you sure it was blank?"

"I shouldn't have even told you that," he muttered. "Look, I'm sorry. I just wanted to help."

"Yeah, you've been a ton of help," she shot back. Her arms tightened across her front and her eyes flashed. "What you're telling me is that you're not supposed to help me, but you want to, except you don't have any information. Well, that is just perfect. You know what, just do me a favor, and leave me alone. Don't try to help me, don't follow me, don't talk to me. Just... don't."

She spun on her heel and stomped out, leaving Edward gaping after her. It took him several moments to start chasing her out into the night, and by then she had hopped into an old, beat up Chevy pick-up truck and was chugging up the street. He watched her leave, torn between confusion and indignation, before his rumbling stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten yet. He sighed loudly and ruffled his hair before turning and walking back into the pub.

Standing in the shadow of a tall building of a nearby building, a slight, wisp of a woman watched him retreat into the crowded bar. Her nostrils flared as a sudden gust of wind carried his scent across the narrow street to where she stood. She closed her eyes and exhaled, willing her mind to shift into the trance-like state that was simultaneously strange and familiar.

Less than a minute later, her eyes snapped open, and her mouth twisted into a frightening snarl. Nothing had changed. The inexplicable blurring hadn't gone away, nor had any of the blank spots resolved themselves. _That_ future, the one she was working so hard to avoid, was still inevitable.

She thought that by erasing the information about the PO Box, she would protect him, both from the consequences of discovering the identity of the letter sender and from getting too involved with Bella Swan. The former was for his benefit, the latter for the woman's. It was only natural that he would be curious, but she hadn't counted on his persistence. Bella's behavior toward him had been an unexpected blessing; a quiet, lonely young man like Edward wouldn't be bothered with such a prickly, difficult girl. She didn't need second sight to tell her that.

Bella was important. Any scenario that was remotely successful centered on her involvement, and yet every time she tried to get a clear view, so to speak, all she came up with was bits and pieces, unsatisfying fragments of a time and place not too far removed from the present. The fact that the vision was incomplete wasn't what disturbed her, however. Over the last eighty-odd years, she'd often experienced only small glimpses of the future. She wasn't omniscient, whatever the others might think.

No, what was truly alarming about it was the way the gaps manifested. Instead of disparate pieces, one long scene unfurled, shrouded in mist. Certain faces and events were clear, but others only became more definite with time and effort. This frustrating inconsistency had only intensified since Bella and Edward had met.

Maybe he was the source of the mist. She was certain she hadn't seen his face before the day she visited him in the post office, and less sure that he wasn't one of the obscured faces in the clearing. For now, she would watch, and wait.

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><p><strong>AN: Wow! Thanks for all your responses. I've never seen the word "intriguing" so many times in reviews. I'm taking that as a good sign. So now you know a little bit more about Edward. What do you think? Any new theories? Thanks for reading! I'm loving all your thoughts and comments!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own very little.**

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><p>Treason. From the Latin <em>tradere<em>, meaning to hand over or surrender.

In the old days, human sovereigns punished traitors with barbaric sentences; they were hung, drawn and quartered, or if they were lucky, beheaded. Modern governments were more likely to impose a massive fine and send offenders to prison for a few years, though the crime carried just as much drama and intrigue as before.

For those immortal creatures who walked the night, the blood drinkers who stayed concealed in the shadows and answered to no authority but their own thirst, the word held very little meaning. Allegiance was a foreign concept, and punishment of any kind was laughable. The only rule was kill or be killed. The feast and the fight.

That changed in the latter half of the 16th century, when a vampire named Benito discovered an ingenious technique for controlling the lucrative hunting territories in the larger, urban areas of the southern part of the American continent. Benito found that by creating a horde of newborn vampires, who were imbibed with massive strength thanks to the human blood still contained in their newly-turned bodies, he could destroy any competition with ease. It was a good strategy, to feed and be feared, and for a while, it seemed to work.

It didn't take long for other vampires to replicate this technique, and the result was chaos. It built gradually, and for many years, the humans unknowingly living amongst the undead armies attributed the widespread dip in mortality rates to epidemics, famine, and human war. In a world unconnected by phones or the internet, it was easy to hide the fatalities. This balance was perilous, though, and by the end of the 19th century, the situation raging in the Americas had reached an all-time low for the human population. Newborn vampires were destroyed as quickly as they were created, since their brute strength and single-mindedness in a fight meant no casualty was avoided. Their ever-increasing numbers were starting to attract the wrong kind of attention. It seemed as if the vampire world would soon be faced with a new threat.

Exposure.

What happened next is still unclear. No one knew where they came from, or even who they were, at first. Rumors began to circulate that a new coven, immensely powerful and ancient, was working its way across the continent. The leaders of this coven were reputed to be among the oldest of their kind, gifted and ruthless. Everywhere they went, whole armies of newborns fell. It was said that this coven controlled an elite group of fighters who were able to incapacitate and annihilate hundreds of vampires at a time without a single casualty of their own. And everywhere the rumors spread, an uneasy dread lingered. There was no question that this was the purpose of the rumors, but that didn't stop the fear.

It was only after the newborn armies had been eradicated that the mysterious coven's agenda became obvious. Vampires had remained unchecked for too long, according to the leaders of this group. Unless someone took control, the newborn wars would be just the beginning. If such recklessness continued, the food source would be permanently depleted. While no vampire had ever succeeded in starving to death, it wasn't anything most wanted to try. The simple logic of this argument was difficult to resist, and so, for the good of all the species, the Volturi took control. They called themselves a "collective," insisting that within the group, all were equal, but it fooled no one.

There were three clear leaders of the coven, but little was known about any of them. Aro was reputed to have the ability to read every thought that had ever passed through a person's mind with a single touch, although the stories said he didn't touch those in his immediate circle out of respect. While Aro could often be persuaded to spare a life in exchange for allegance, especially when a particularly gifted vampire had broken Collective law, Caius was harsh and unforgiving. If Caius had had his way, not a single vampire would have survived the newborn wars. The third member of the trio, Marcus, was a complete mystery; no one had ever heard Marcus speak a single word, and in public appearances, he rarely even breathed. His role in the Collective was widely speculated upon, though, of course, never outwardly questioned. Those who asked questions tended not to live for much longer. After the first few dissenters were destroyed, few made that mistake again.

The first rule of the new order was put into effect not long after the rampaging newborn armies were destroyed. An edict was issued, simply stating that every vampire was to report to the Collective to be registered. At first, no one was quite sure what that meant. This impromptu census was to take place over twenty-five years, giving the news time to reach even the most isolated of nomads. After the quarter-century grace period, all unregistered vampires would be destroyed on sight. Ignorance of the law was no excuse. No one doubted that the Collective could carry through on this threat. It was only years later that people would begin to question the swift and forceful way they seized power.

Slowly, the vampires of the world trickled into the small Italian city where the Collective made its home. Volterra. To help the registrants remain inconspicuous, several "stations" were also set up around Italy. Everyone who registered was subjected to a touch from Aro, and also from a stocky Russian vampire named Demitri, which often meant waiting for hours or even days while they traveled from station to station. Registrants were warned that they would never be able to escape the eye of the Collective again.

It was whispered that Demetri was a tracker of extraordinary skill, able to track a person forever after a single touch. Lawbreakers would be instantly found, and guilty verdicts would be swift and efficient. Upon release, registered vampires were told that any newborns created from that point forward would either need to be created with the express permission of the Collective, or immediately registered and presented in Italy. After a grace period of one year, the same penalty would apply to the unregistered newborn and the offending creator: destruction.

Alice had been one such illegal newborn, created out of loneliness and pity by an odd little vampire who had inexplicably taken a job at the insane asylum she resided in until the end of her human life. For the first several years of her new life, she lived with her creator, Carlo, in the backwoods of Mississippi, feeding off of human hunters and hikers who wandered too far afield or got lost in the maze of unmarked trees.

Carlo was father and friend to her, two human relationships she couldn't remember experiencing, because all of her human memories were laced with the darkness of the asylum. Her visions, a pleasant surprise to her creator, allowed them to move from hunting ground to hunting ground without raising suspicions or attracting the wrong kind of attention. They always avoided other vampires, though little Alice was never quite sure why. She had no reason to believe that her creator was a criminal, or that there was anything to be feared from others of her kind.

Then, one day, she had a vision of fire, and of a trio of men flanked by fighters in defensive stances. A glimpse of a flapping gray cloak, and then... nothing. She hadn't understood what it meant. When she told Carlo about it, fear flickered in his eyes. A second later, it was gone, replaced by an eerie calm. He instructed her to leave, to make for the crowded cities on the northeastern coast of the country and hide herself there. He told her he would come for her when it was safe.

He was wrong. She never saw him again.

It was Alice's first encounter with the deadly power of the Collective, but it would not be her last. For a long while she wandered among the nomads of the United States, collecting gossip and learning about her people. It didn't take long to understand the reason Carlo hadn't come for her. He was a lawbreaker. And lawbreakers were punished.

Not long after she landed in New York City, she had one of her strongest visions yet. She was not yet in the habit of questioning the nebulous nature of these visions, so she followed its clear instructions. In Rochester, New York, she found Carlisle and Esme Cullen, a charming couple who were not only hiding, but defying their very nature. Carlisle had participated in the original census, only to be detained for half a century because the Collective wished to study the effects of his unusual diet on his sanity and health. Carlisle had subsisted for several hundred years off the blood of animals, and was considered somewhat of an oddity, to say the least. He officially went off the map with the creation of his wife, and the two of them had kept a low profile ever since.

In Carlisle, Alice found her first true ally. He had spent enough time around the gifted, and sometimes extraordinarily gifted, members of the Collective in Volterra that he was able to give her a steady stream of advice about her visions and how to harness their power. Out of respect, she adopted the Cullens' lifestyle while she stayed with them, eventually deciding to stick with it because she found that he was right in saying it helped her regain lost pieces of her humanity. She was able to interact with them, move among them, even befriend them to a certain extent, living a shadow of a real, human life. While she was forced to move frequently to avoid suspicion, she enjoyed far more stability than she had in her days of hunting campers.

It was Carlisle who discovered that the visions changed in response to personal choices, and who helped her find a way to slip in and out of them on purpose. So last year, when she had the vision that made her stone stomach sink, the one that ended in fire and ash and a world of burning destruction and screaming humans, naturally, she turned to Carlisle. He had turned to a network of other rogue vampires, and with his help, and a lot of patience and alternate decisions, she had begun to form the wispy, frustratingly incomplete vision of Bella Swan in battle, surrounded by familiar, unfamilar, and sometimes completely blank faces.

"Are you listening, Alice?"

She turned away from the window so that she faced her visitor, another brilliant discovery of Carlisle's. Eleazar was what they jokingly referred to as an "acquisitions agent" for the Collective. Like Alice, he had a gift. He was able, with a single glance, to identify whether or not a vampire had a special talent, and more specifically, what that talent was. With a touch, he could find out even more. Eleazar and his wife, Carmen, had been with the Collective since their rise to power, but lately he had become dissatisfied with the Collective's methods. When Carlisle informed him about Alice's vision, he agreed to help immediately.

"Of course," she said instantly. It was true that only part of her had been listening to Eleazar's words, but one of the benefits of her vampire brain was that it allowed her to focus on many things at once. "You met an empath in Philadelphia. What about him? You've mentioned him before, but last time you told me that he wasn't interested."

"Apparently, he's been in touch with a couple of friends from the newborn wars, ones who got out right around the same time he did. He found _me _this time, actually, and he said he's interested in helping us devise an attack strategy. You should see what he can do, Alice. I'd be tempted to ask him for help just from his scars, aside from his fighting experience, he's the most powerful empath I've ever come across."

She waved her hand in a noncommittal gesture. She hadn't yet seen this empath, after all. She couldn't be sure whether he was one of the fighters she was searching for. But then, she couldn't be sure he wasn't.

"I've started tracking her," she said, changing the subject. "I can't get a good read on how to approach her yet. She's awfully jumpy. Can you take a look at her? See if you can confirm anything? She's important. Central, even. But whatever she does, it's not anything I can see in my visions."

"Of course." He rose to go, but she stopped him with a gentle hand on his arm.

"See if you can get a read on one other for me. His name is Edward Masen. He works at the post office, at the counter. Tall, young, odd colored reddish hair. He's hard to miss."

"Any particular reason?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. Just a feeling I guess."

"Well, I'm not one to go against your 'feelings,'" he said with a wry grin. "Any other feelings I should know about?"

"Maybe." She thought about the letter Bella had brought to the post office, and the way she had flinched back from Edward the night before. Her comment about being followed particularly stuck out. "Is there any chance someone else beat us here? Is it possible that we're not the only ones interested in... converting Bella?"

"I don't know anyone else enlisted in acquisitions..." Eleazar trailed off, and a sudden understanding lit his features. Alice waited. "Unless it's Joham."

"Joham? I don't recognize that name. You've never mentioned him."

"There was never a need. Joham is, well, he's not exactly part of the guard. He's not even really part of the Collective."

"So, what is he?"

"I've heard Aro refer to him as a scientist." He paused and pursed his lips, squinting in a way that made him look almost like a human lost in thought. "I don't know what he does, exactly. I have seen him arriving at Volterra on occasion. Sometimes he brings a human girl with him."

"Take out cuisine?"

Eleazar snorted. "Hardly. That's against the rules. But it's possible that he's on a different sort of scouting mission."

"Different how?"

"As I said, I'm not certain what it is he's doing. I know he has private meetings with Aro, though. Caius and Marcus are almost never present. But I have no idea why he would be particularly interested in Bella."

"It's probably nothing," she said, turning to face the window again, her mind whirring. If someone else was searching for Bella, time was shorter than she had thought. If the Collective was somehow anticipating her next move, the whole thing could be doomed from the start.

"But you don't think it's nothing." It wasn't a question. "You think they're after her. If she's as important as you say, and the Collective gets to her first—"

"I know," Alice cut him off. She didn't need Eleazar to tell her what would happen if they lost Bella. Fire and ash.

||X||

Isabella took her normal route home that night, but she was walking faster than normal. He noted this without particular interest. Her relative speed made no difference, not to him. He could smell her anxiety.

She was a pretty little thing. In his mind, he saw the others. Dark-skinned and fair, blondes, brunettes, and redheads, and once, a tall teenage girl with blue, spiked hair. All of them special in their own right, but none as special as Isabella.

Nahuel would be arriving in Italy with the new baby soon. Jahom named her Ailith, for she would be a noble warrior. Her mother had had a strong offensive tilt to her, and he was eager to see how it would manifest itself in the girl, especially given the characteristic flip that almost all the hybrids displayed. At the nursery, they would track her growth and carefully moniter her interactions with the others. Usually it only took a few days for a gift to become obvious.

Isabella's inner light shone brighter than all the others, and secretly, Jahom hoped she would be part of the next stage of his experiment. He nearly shivered with anticipation, thinking of the endless string of possibilties that lay before him. Aro had not yet approved his plans, but it was only a matter of time. Perhaps Ailith would convince him that Joham was right and had been right all along. The world was changing. The Collective, and indeed, all of vampire-kind must change with it.

As a scientist, Jahom was a staunch believer in evolution. Without evolution, even the strongest species would die. Vampires were unchanging by nature, and so their evolution need some... guidance. Being a visionary wasn't easy, but Joham shouldered the responsibility with a fervent zeal. Humans were expendable, and casualties were inevitable with any experiment. As he watched Isabella unlock the front door to her apartment building and slip inside, he whispered her a promise she couldn't possibly hear.

"Do not be afraid, Isabella. The future is nigh, and your destiny approaches."

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><p><strong>AN: So...some answers, and new questions. I know there's a bit of an info-dump here, but you needed it. Hope I didn't lose any of you :) Your thoughts, as always, are greatly appreciated. Thanks to daisy3853, BittenBee, katiniki01, and hmonster4 for being amazing, encouraging, and brilliant resources slash sounding-boards. Thanks to all of you for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own almost nothing.**

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><p>As a child, Bella never believed in the Boogie Man. She never looked under her bed or in her closet for monsters, and she walked fearlessly down dark hallways and into unlit rooms in the dead of night. She didn't even have a nightlight.<p>

It went completely against the grain, therefore, when the onset of night started to give her the creeps. Twenty-one was surely too late an age for such fears. She'd tell herself as much every time she stayed late at the library, when she had to run out late at night for a gallon of milk and some cereal, or when she went out for a nightcap at the neighborhood bar. She was ashamed of the way her blood seemed to freeze in her veins when a twig snapped or the wind howled. But no matter what she muttered to herself as she walked forcefully into the dark, the feeling lingered, like pinpricks on her skin.

Things only got worse after she ran into the man from the post office. After she'd left him standing on the sidewalk, mouth hanging open like an entirely too handsome guppy, she'd felt a surge of adrenaline, followed by inevitable guilt.

She wasn't sure why he'd bothered to approach her in the bar that night. She certainly hadn't been trying to attract male attention, and she was sure her face had been a virtual mask of irritation. He hadn't even had anything useful to say—he hadn't had a name, a face, or a hunch. And still, he had the gall to tell her he wanted to _help_. A small part of her wondered if he hadn't been secretly laughing at her, poking fun at the crazy girl with the deranged secret admirer. Something about the way he looked at her infuriated Bella: his casual smile, the shocked way his eyes popped open when she accused him of following her. To be fair, he couldn't know that he was scaring her, but Bella wasn't in the mood to be fair.

It was a sunny afternoon in Lake Forest, and Bella basked in the bright afternoon light as she walked toward downtown. Instinctively, she glanced over her shoulder, then across the street. She couldn't prove it, but almost every time she left her apartment, she got the nagging feeling that someone was following her, watching her, tracking her every move. It was a bit too paranoid for her, but then, she also tended to trust her instincts. And every instinct told her to watch her back.

As she walked, the sun helped to lighten her mood, and her thoughts turned once again to the handsome guppy from the post office. He looked about her age, and even though he had seemed like a bit of a know-it-all, it wasn't his fault that it was illegal for him to give her any information. She pushed down the tinge of annoyance and redirected it, speeding up and allowing her heels to clack comfortingly against the pavement. She would apologize, she decided. After all, it wasn't his fault she had an obsessive admirer. The post office was on her way to downtown, anyway.

She looked across the street again, and her eyes narrowed. Walking parallel to her and slightly ahead, carrying a colorful umbrella patterned with flowers and butterflies, was a tiny woman with shortly cropped black hair. Despite the sunshine, the woman wore a stylish trench coat, and, most inexplicably, white gloves.

But the most confusing thing about this woman wasn't her wardrobe—it was that this was at least the fifth time Bella had seen her in the last several days. Although the woman's back was facing her now, Bella knew that she had fine features: a button nose, high cheekbones, full lips, delicate eyebrows, and big, oddly colored eyes. Lake Forest wasn't huge, so the second time Bella had seen her, she had brushed it off as a coincidence. But then the petite woman surfaced at a coffee shop where Bella was studying for a test, and at the grocery store, and the mall, always just a few feet away, and always dressed in overly stylized or fashionable clothes. The woman stuck out like a sore thumb in Lake Forest. Now, here she was again, wearing the strangest get-up yet and strolling along like she hadn't a care in the world.

Bella's annoyance picked up again, this time directed at the little woman prancing along with her umbrella—parasol?—across the street. For all Bella knew, she was the reason for the creeping, tingling feeling she got every time she left her house. With no other possible source for answers and a building sense of indignation, Bella made a snap decision. She would apologize to the boy at the post office some other time; right now, she had bigger fish to fry.

Keeping pace with the woman while remaining inconspicuous was surprisingly difficult. She walked swiftly and made unpredictable turns. Bella stumbled a couple of times in her quest to keep up, and once, she thought she saw the woman peek across the street at her. Other than that one quick look, the woman gave no indication that she knew Bella was following her.

They sped away from downtown, moving up side streets and into residential neighborhoods with less foot traffic and far fewer cars. Soon, they were in a part of town Bella didn't even know existed. She hoped she would be able to find her way back again after—after what? She confronted the woman for following her? After she demanded answers about the letters and the flowers and the creepy, watchful feeling?

She groaned quietly to herself as the woman slowed in front of an apartment building. The building was older, but well-maintained. Bella wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but this quaint little apartment building, with its flower boxes and shiny brass mailboxes just inside the gleaming glass doors, wasn't it. Her plan to follow the mysterious woman suddenly seemed monumentally stupid. This woman was a no better target for her fear and wrath than the man at the post office. She was about to turn and try to find her way back to her own apartment when the woman spun on her heel abruptly, gold eyes glittering in the sunlight.

"Are you coming up, or not?"

Bella froze, one foot extended in front of her, half-turned toward the street. She swiveled her head to look for whoever the woman was talking to, but there wasn't a soul around except for her. She stared, surprised to see a small smile on the woman's dainty lips.

"Who, me?"

"No, the other twenty-one year old college student who's been stalking me for the last fifteen blocks."

"How do you know how old I am? And if you knew I was following you, why didn't you say something? Who are you?" Bella's heart pounded in her ears, but underneath the surge of fear was a vague sense of triumph—maybe now she would get answers.

"This would be easier if you just came up, Bella Swan."

The sound of her name brought her fear to the forefront again. Her arms and legs refused to move; they were as heavy as lead.

"You're the one who's been following me. The letters, the flowers, that was all you, wasn't it?"

"Don't be silly," the little woman laughed lightly. She closed her umbrella and tucked it under her arm, propping the door with her other hand. "Now come inside where we can talk like civilized people."

When Bella stayed where she was, frozen half in terror, half in indecision, the woman's gaze softened. "My name is Alice. I have been following you, but I'm not going to hurt you. You're my best and brightest hope right now, Bella. I need you to come inside so we can talk. Please."

The 'please' seemed to thaw out Bella's limbs and get her moving, albeit slowly and very cautiously. Although Alice was at least four inches shorter, something about the way she moved put Bella on edge. She had no doubt that Alice could take care of herself if it came to a fight.

"I'm on the fourth floor. We'll take the elevator, it's faster. Come on, hurry up." Alice's voice was simultaneously sweet and fierce, with a slight lilt hidden in her vowels. She walked with tiny, graceful steps, her high heels clacking on the linoleum. Everything about her said 'lady', but there was a strange, beguiling power that lurked beneath the surface as well.

Bella wondered at the contradiction as they made their way through the stereotypical beige hallways of the building to Alice's apartment. As soon as they were inside, Alice clicked the deadbolt and flew to the windows to draw the blinds, closing up every chink until the bright sunshine was a distant memory.

She flitted around the Spartan room, shedding her coat, hat and gloves. The only furniture in the place was a plain, wood kitchen table and two chairs. Alice was more fairy than human, making disconcertingly quick movements and at times seeming to blink in and out of sight as she moved. Watching her, it occurred to Bella that Alice was even more abnormal than she had seemed at first.

"What are you?" Bella stuttered as Alice finally came to a stop in front of her. She had meant to say 'who', but 'what' seemed to fit disturbingly well.

"You had better sit down for this." Alice said softly, nudging out one of the chairs with her toe. Bella collapsed into it with a thump, not bothering to be embarrassed for her gracelessness.

"What's going on?" Bella whispered. In the darkened room, she felt less righteous indignation and more all-encompassing terror. It was dawning on her that she was trapped like a fox up a tree, cornered by Alice, who was staring at her with a strangely predatory gleam in her eyes. "Who sent those letters? And why have you been following me if you don't want to hurt me?"

"I don't know who sent you the letters. Not yet, anyway." Alice's forehead furrowed, but the expression only called Bella's attention to her oddly perfect skin. There wasn't a line or a wrinkle anywhere to be seen. "The letters aren't... well, it isn't a good sign, Bella. Time is running out. I was following you because I need to tell you something, but every time I planned it out, things didn't turn out the way they have to. In order for this to work, _you_ had to confront _me_. I'm glad you finally lost your patience or I would have had to resort to plan B."

"What was plan B?"

"Kidnapping you."

"Kidnapping—" Bella felt the blood drain from her face, and a cold sweat broke out over her forehead. Alice watched with a kind of grim satisfaction.

"Good. You should be scared. You've been quite reckless. Following a stranger up into an empty apartment? Really, Bella, I would have thought you'd have more sense." Her eyes narrowed a little, then she sighed and continued, "I'm sorry I had to drag you into this, but we need you. You are, in the parlance of your times, a game-changer."

Bella stared blankly at her; the words made no sense. Alice kept talking anyway, because whether Bella was ready to hear it or not, the time was now.

"There are things in this world that can't be explained."

"What do you mean? And what does that have to do with me?"

"It has everything to do with you, Bella."

She stood and walked around the table, crouching in front of the frozen human girl. "I'm not like you, Bella. I'm not human."

"What? Of course you are, what else would you be?"

"I'm a vampire."

"That's...don't be stupid. You're crazy," Bella said firmly. "You've lost your mind. I don't believe you. Vampires don't exist."

Alice smiled sadly. "Give me your hand, Bella." She hesitated, but Alice sighed and reached out impatiently, tugging her hand softly. Alice's skin was cold to the touch, silky soft, but oddly stiff. "Put your hand on my chest. I'm not alive." She chuckled. "At least not in the conventional sense."

Underneath Alice's silk shirt, there was no beating heart, no pulsing blood. Bella held her hand on the spot for a few long seconds before pulling it back to her own chest, soft and warm, her own heat beating wildly in fear.

And while human girl sat motionless—as motionless as a human could sit, anyway—Alice spun unbelievable tales of warring armies of blood-sucking demons and the massacring of undead soldiers. And then Alice started explaining the way she saw the future, and one particular future in which Bella, herself, was a monster. A monster with terrible power.

Sitting in Alice's dark kitchen, Bella didn't know what was more unlikely: that the end of the world was imminent, or that vampires existed.

"We're gathering an army," Alice said, her tone blasé. "It's dangerous to join us, but we have quite a few gifted friends who understand the true consequences of allowing the Collective to expand their influence unchecked."

"The Collective—they're the ones who destroyed the newborn armies?" Bella asked tentatively.

"That's right!" Alice sounded absolutely delighted. "You were paying attention. Yes, they're very old and very powerful. They have soldiers who can incapacitate a whole army at a time. After that, it's a relatively simple thing to rip the rebels to shreds and burn the pieces."

"I'm not saying I believe you, because what you're saying is insane. But hypothetically, if what you say were true, and vampires existed and all that... that's what will happen if I don't join you?" It was slowly dawning on Bella how ephemeral her life was, and how fragile. An accidental fall or a sudden illness could incapacitate or even kill her. It would take much more to take down someone...some_thing_ like Alice.

"It's much worse than that. I don't understand it exactly, the context is missing. But this doesn't just affect the vampire world. Humans are implicated, too." Alice frowned, as if not used to being failed by her visions. "There's a lot of fire. I've seen human in chains, and ...shiny people."

Bella snorted. "Shiny happy people?"

"No, they're not happy. Their skin shimmers. Not quite a sparkle, but..."

"Of course they don't sparkle. Who sparkles?"

Alice rolled her eyes and rose too quickly. Before Bella could blink, she had the blinds open, and a ray of sunshine burst into the dim room. She thrust her arm into the light, pushing white silk up past her elbow. Where the sun hit her skin, the light refracted in every direction, hitting the walls and the ceiling.

"Your skin is like diamonds." The words sounded choked and oddly panicked as they came out. Briefly, Bella wondered if this was what it felt like to have a stroke. She was momentarily dazzled by Alice's sparkling skin, and then her brain caught up with the rest of her body. Panic. Fight or flight.

'Fight' wasn't exactly an option.

Flight was just as implausible, especially if everything that Alice had told her about superhuman speed and strength was true, but in the moment, she didn't care. She flung the lock open and bolted down the hallway, not bothering to wait for the elevator. Down the stairs, two at a time. Out the glass doors. Down the empty street. She ran faster than she thought possible, but somehow she knew it wasn't fast enough.

The weather seemed to sense her distress. As her feet pounded against the cement, the wind shifted and the sun hid behind suddenly thick, black clouds. The day had been humid, and now the humidity thickened into something else, something foreboding. Drops of water hit her face, and after a few minutes she couldn't tell if she was crying or if the warm liquid running down her cheeks was rain.

When she couldn't breathe any more, she stopped, hands on her knees, gasping through her exhaustion and panic. The rain picked up, soaking through her thin t-shirt. It would be minutes, if that, before Alice found her. Whether she was a vampire or something else, Bella knew for certain that the raven-haired girl she had spent the afternoon with was distinctly inhuman.

So it was of no surprise to Bella when she heard the quickly approaching footsteps. She straightened up slowly.

"I'm not coming back with you, Alice."

"I'm not Alice, little one."

His voice was silky and mellow. Even though there was nothing dangerous about it, the sound of him made all the hair on her neck stand on end. She opened her mouth and prepared to scream, but before she could make a sound, something cold and hard clamped over her mouth.

"Now, now, sweet child, it wouldn't do for you to alert the neighbors." He pulled her to his chest, scooping her legs out from under her in some gross parody of a groom on his wedding night. "This isn't how I envisioned our meeting, but you have forced my hand. Alas, such is the way of things."

He looked down into her eyes. Lightning flashed in the distance, and she could see that his irises were a bright, pure ruby. She fainted dead away, her scream dying on her lips.

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><p><strong>AN: The plot thickens. Thank you to daisy3853, hmonster4, katinki01, and BittenBee...this story would not have happened without your support, feedback, and encouragement. Special thanks to katinki01 for the Fictionators pimp this week! Thank you to all of you for reading, and of course, your thoughts are welcome. :) **


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own almost nothing.**

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><p>It was one of those weeks when the days stretched endlessly in front of him and five o'clock never came soon enough. The hours passed in a robotic fashion; Edward carried out his tasks unthinkingly, all his energy focused on reliving his meetings with Isabella the previous week. She had lodged herself in his brain, and no matter how hard he tried to forget about her, he couldn't. God only knew why. She was defensive, grating, and ungrateful.<p>

The mystery she presented was twofold—on the one hand, the PO Box and the unknown letter sender, on the other, the sheer magnetism she seemed to exercise over him. He couldn't shake the angry spark in her voice, or the cloaked terror in her eye. As the days wore on, he found himself wondering if she had received any more letters. The one he had seen wasn't exactly benign, and he started to worry that Isabella was in more danger than she knew. No matter how unlikable the girl was, no one deserved to be stalked.

Things had gotten so bad that his manager had quietly reprimanded him on Friday. He had been absently reorganizing stamp books when Ben approached him, a solemn look on his face that told Edward he didn't have a social conversation in mind.

"Is everything okay at home, Edward?" Ben was a good guy, and as managers went, Edward counted himself pretty lucky. Another boss would have chewed Edward out for the scatter-brained way he'd been handling things over the last few days, but Ben just smiled sympathetically and looked concerned.

"Everything's fine." Edward shrugged and stared at his shoes. Ben was the one who had hired him as an 18-year-old kid, fresh out of high school, no parents and no clue. He was the closest thing Edward had to an adult role model in those days, and as a result, Ben was the one he turned to when things got tough.

"I'm only asking because you've been a little all over the place," Ben continued, watching his face carefully. "You haven't been yourself this week."

"I have been a little distracted." He lifted his head, meeting Ben's eyes for the first time since their conversation started. He paused for a beat, struggling with a bizarre urge to keep Isabella to himself. Then her brown eyes flashed in his mind, and the feeling of helplessness and anxiety they inspired pushed him to continue. "Can I ask you something? I mean, without it being a big deal?"

Ben nodded encouragingly, so Edward led him over to a computer and pulled up the account for PO Box 139. The cursor blinked innocently on a blank line, like it had every time Edward had looked at it. He explained to Ben about Isabella's letter and the return address matching the PO Box. He even described the petite woman who had arrive shortly afterwards, and his suspicion that she had something to do with the blank record. He left out looking at the surveillance videos, though—he didn't want to get Max in trouble.

"Well, Edward, it sounds like someone was playing a prank on the young lady," Ben said reasonably. "Granted, it's not a very funny one, but it wouldn't be the first time someone used a bogus address to harass another person. We would have a record if that box were in use." He put a hand on Edward's shoulder. "I suggest you forget about it. It's a waste of energy; there's nothing we can do about it, and even if there was, we don't have any information to go on."

He smiled again and patted Edward's shoulder, then walked away. That was it. Case closed.

That day, as five o'clock rolled around, Edward experienced a dull thud of panic deep in his gut. It was the kind of internal warning he tried not to ignore. The trouble was that he couldn't see a reason for it. The post office was silent, and all his co-workers had left for the day. All was quiet, literally and figuratively.

He was about to lock the doors when a tall, olive-skinned man with shiny black hair strode in carrying a brown paper package.

"You're not closed, are you?"

"I'm afraid it's after five, sir. You'll have to come by tomorrow."

"Oh, that is bad news." The man approached the counter and set down his package. He looked at Edward with a curious stare, his eyes slightly narrowed in what appeared to be concentration. They were an odd, violet blue color. Goosebumps crept up the back of Edward's neck, and he was forcibly reminded of the black-haired woman from last week. He had the same raven hair color, his skin the same strange, white pallor. Just as he'd drawn an instinctive connection between the woman and Isabella's troubles, Edward suspected that this man was directly connected to the mystery of the PO Box.

"I don't suppose you could bend the rules for me, could you?" the man continued, staring at Edward intently. His voice had a smooth Latin lilt. "It's an emergency, and with the way international shipping is, I can't be certain my package will reach its destination in Italy on time if I wait."

Edward hesitated, green eyes darting back and forth between the man's violet ones. The possibility of solving the mystery of the PO Box, or at the very least, collecting another piece of the puzzle, was too tantalizing to pass up. He nodded slowly, never taking his eyes from the man's face. "All right. I suppose it won't take too long. You have everything ready?"

"Yes, yes, of course."

Edward glanced at the return address stamped on the box, but disappointingly, it was for a house in Lake Forest. "Mr. ... Espejo de Guerrero. Do you have friends in Italy, then?" His mind raced, questions swirling as he tried to determine the best course to the information he needed. Inexplicable fear raced through his veins, but he shook it off. Likely it was just adrenaline, the excitement of possibly getting some real answers. He cleared his throat and stood up straight. The man smiled kindly, full lips closed.

"My employers. And please, call me Eleazar. I insist." Eleazar smiled wider, flashing bright white teeth, and Edward took an unconscious step backwards.

"Sure. Um, Eleazar. What is it you do?" The small talk flowed automatically, a byproduct of Edward's years in customer service. Despite his easy tone, his heart pounded in his ears and his chest. His curiosity did battle with a strong desire to get this interaction over with as soon as possible.

"I guess you could say I'm a talent scout." Eleazar chuckled, and his laugh was almost musical.

"And that takes you all over the world?" Edward tried to keep his hands from shaking as he weighed the package and brought it back to the counter. "This is going to be $43.45 in postage and shipping fees."

"I travel quite a lot, yes." Eleazar pulled a crisp fifty dollar bill from his wallet and handed it across the counter. Edward reached out to take the bill and found his hand engulfed in an icy clasp. Another jolt of panic ran through him, and he shivered. Eleazar let go with a secretive, satisfied kind of smile.

"You know, it is my firm belief that every young man should travel the world. There's nothing that teaches you more about human nature and character."

The cheerfulness in the man's voice was just as chilling as his touch. Edward hurriedly finished with the package and took it back to where the international mail was stored. When he returned to the counter, he counted out Eleazar's change and laid it out in front of him, carefully avoiding the stranger's cold touch.

"You're probably right," Edward said, hoping to finish the conversation quickly and lock the door behind him. "Lucky for me, I've already got a pretty good grasp on human character. Most people are easy to read."

"I'm not surprised you think so," Eleazar mused. His purple eyes—surely that wasn't natural—took in Edward's form with calculating interest, making him feel naked and exposed.

Eleazar saw the young man grow more uncomfortable by the second. He almost regretted what he knew he must do next. Edward seemed like a decent young man, living out an average life. In any other time, he might have remained so, blissfully unaware that the intuition he so prized, his gift of 'reading people', was actually a latent telepathic gift.

The outside door swept open again, and a tall blonde man with a stern countenance hurried in off the street. He glanced indifferently at Edward, then turned to Eleazar.

"Are you just about done here?" The slightest trace of a Southern accent infused his e's and r's.

"I thought I made it clear that you were to wait _outside_." Eleazar's pleasant demeanor dissolved in an instant, though Edward couldn't understand why. Eleazar's lips moved again, quickly and too quietly to be heard by the human at the counter. "It's too dangerous for you to be in here."

"I'm not totally out of control," said his companion in the same quiet tone. "And I only came in to tell you that we have to get moving. He's starting to get worked up. You have to make a decision and deal with the consequences."

Warning bells rang in Edward's head as he watched the exchange. Although he couldn't hear what was being said, he sensed that he was witnessing an important event, one in which his life hung in the balance.

"Don't hurt me," he blurted. The men looked at him in surprise. The blood drained from his face as he realized he had just tipped his hand. He scrambled to remember the robbery deterrence seminar Ben had run two years before, but all he could remember was that the Greek food they had had delivered for lunch that day gave him food poisoning for three days. He focused on Eleazar, who had seemed so kind only moments before. "Please. Take anything, just don't hurt me."

"This will be easier if you don't struggle," he answered with a sad smile.

Edward heart hammered wildly. He drew a deep breath, preparing to scream, hoping that someone, anyone would hear. Somehow he knew that running or fighting would be little help to him now.

As he slowly backed away from the counter, his eyes fell upon the blonde man's face, and what he saw nearly stopped his heart. Red eyes. Like glittering rubies, or freshly spilt blood.

In an instant, the blonde man was next to him, somehow behind the four foot high counter. "Ah ah ah," he said as Edward scrambled back. "None of that, now."

In a flash, he drew his hand back and struck Edward on the base of his neck, Edward's eyes rolled back into his head as he crumpled, unconscious, to the floor.

Eleazar watched with obvious disapproval. "Jasper, was that really necessary? You could have injured him."

"He was going to scream," the man, Jasper, answered reasonably. "This way we can take him out the back, no muss, no fuss. Besides, I wouldn't have done anything a little venom couldn't fix." He snapped his teeth together with a sharp clack and laughed.

"Yes, but changing him in the middle of a public building would be most... imprudent." Eleazar sighed and glanced up at the security camera aimed at the counter. "I'll take care of the video. You get him out to the car."

Minutes later, all evidence of their presence destroyed, they sped through town, the still unconscious Edward lying in the back seat.

"So Alice saw him?" Jasper asked, glancing at the back seat with more interest, now that it had become apparent that the human was important.

"She's ... not sure." Eleazar frowned. "But he's got a lot of potential. It's possible his face hasn't been clarified yet. Alice's visions have been less than reliable as of late."

"She's trying her best," Jasper shot back defensively.

He had only met the little soothsayer three days ago, but the moment their eyes connected, an unbreakable bond had formed between them. She had looked him over coolly, a hint of a smile on her cherry lips, and then reached for his hand. "You're late," was all she'd said. She still had not explained that comment, nor the sudden wave of heartbreak that followed in the wake of the happiness of that first meeting. The flux of emotions she experienced around him was something he constantly marveled at. She was the most emotionally complex woman he had ever met, and the most secretive. Still, he got the sense that she had told him more in the last three days than she had ever told anyone else.

"Of course," Eleazar said. "But time is running short, and even Alice admits that. We don't have time to guess. We must be certain."

"And you're certain of him?"

Eleazar hesitated. "I am certain of nothing these days."

The pulled up to the safe house, a tiny, two-story house far from the edge of town, nearly hidden by oak trees and foliage. Edward groaned in the back seat, his eyes fluttering open.

"Want me to knock him out again until Alice gets back?" Jasper offered.

"No need. We may as well try to explain things."

Scooping Edward up as if he were a small child instead of a six foot tall man, Jasper made his way into the house. He walked into the sparsely furnished living room and dropped his cargo unceremoniously on a loveseat.

"Sit. Don't move." His voice had dropped to a gravelly growl, but a malevolent smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth.

"There are surveillance cameras all over that post office. They'll know I was kidnapped. They'll call the police."

"The police don't exactly scare me, boy." Jasper moved faster than humanly possible to stand behind the loveseat. "Now, are you gonna cooperate, or are you gonna try to make things difficult."

Edward glared, trying to convey more confidence than he was feeling. He shifted awkwardly in his seat to sit up. In a flash, Jasper was across the room, his hand on the doorknob.

"You can't outrun me," he said softly. Edward blinked, and Jasper moved again, coming face to face with him. He bared his teeth, which glistened oddly in the half-light, and snarled. "You can't fight me off."

With a gentle tap of his forefinger, Jasper pushed Edward against the back of the loveseat and pinned him there. "My advice? You don't even try."

Edward nodded jerkily. "What—" his voice cracked, and he cleared his throat, embarrassed through his fear. "What are you?"

"I am death. I am the night. I am fear."

"You are melodramatic," a high, lilting voice added from the doorway. Edward tore his eyes from the man in front of him and gaped at the woman who had entered the room. There she was, the raven-haired woman from the week before, standing there with an indulgent grin on her face. "Now stop it."

Jasper fell back instantly, an easy smile lighting his features and making even his devilish red eyes look less dangerous. The change was startling. "Yes, ma'am."

She walked over and took his hand, turning her smile to Edward. "I'm very sorry about all of this. I'm sure you're confused and frightened. My name is Alice, and this is Jasper. I assume he didn't introduce himself properly."

Edward shook his head, fear and surprise finally rendering him mute.

"I apologize. Everything will be made clear soon, I promise. Well, about as clear as I can make them." She laughed, and Jasper smiled. There was obviously a subtext to her comment, but it was completely lost on Edward.

Eleazar finally appeared, coming from a different hallway, one that Edward presumed led to the back of the house. "Oh, good, you're back. I thought you'd be bringing _her_ with you, though. Change of plans?"

Alice's smile slipped away in an instant. "She ran. I was giving her time to cool down and then she just... faded out. I can't get a read on her, which is very, very bad."

The men exchanged loaded glances. "Did you follow her scent?" Jasper asked.

"Of course I did. There was someone with her, someone like us, but there were only light traces of whoever it was. Nothing substantial enough to follow after the point of abduction."

"Abduction?" Edward said. He was confused and frightened, but the strange allusions to death and crime had finally cracked through the haze that had descended on him at the post office. There was something alien about these people, almost otherworldly. "What the hell is going on? Who are you people?"

"Did you check him?" Alice asked, not even looking at Edward.

"Yes. You were right, there's quite a latent gift there. A telepath."

"Who's telepathic?" Edward demanded, glaring at Eleazar now. "Stop speaking in damned riddles!"

"You are," Eleazar said simply. "A mind-reader. A good one, if I'm right, which I am."

"You're crazy." Edward pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them tightly. There was no conviction in his tone.

Alice's eyes slid out of focus, and she froze on the spot, not breathing or moving an inch.

"Is she okay?" Edward asked.

Jasper looked down at the woman by his side and shrugged. "She's fine. She's probably just checking on you."

At the sound of his voice, Alice's eyes cleared, and she sighed heavily. "I don't know why I didn't see him there before. He's right there, guarding her from the fight. We'll have to keep him now. I'm sorry, Edward."

Neither of her companions seemed surprised or disturbed by the news, but Edward found himself shrinking into the corner of the loveseat, trying to make himself into a smaller ball. Danger was coming. Death. He felt it, as surely as he felt his heart pounding against his ribs.

"Eleazar, start explaining things to him. Jasper, I need you to help me look for Bella."

She was out the door a second later, Jasper trailing in her wake. Edward barely had time to process the name—Bella—before Eleazar sank into the cushions next to him.

"Tell me, Edward. Do you believe in vampires?"

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><p><strong>AN: So, Edward and Bella are both in the clutches of vampires! Now, what? I'm sorry I didn't get to review replies this week, things got crazy. I had the best of intentions, but you know what they say about that ... Once again, many thanks to the lovely katinki01, hmonster4, daisy3853, and BittenBee, without whom this story would certainly be substantially less awesome. And thank you so much to all of YOU for reading. As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own next to nothing.**

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><p>The room was cool, windowless, and dry. Bella lay on a soft mat, cushioned by feather pillows that squished beneath her head as she rolled to sit up. The only source of light was a flickering candle, a single taper, which seemed to be floating midair.<p>

She was disoriented and exhausted, and her head ached dully. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she remembered Alice, and crying, and running. And then—

The candle moved, and a face appeared, lit by the warm yellow light. It was the man from earlier, smiling in a sinister sort of way. Or maybe, Bella reflected, he only looked sinister because he was lighting his face from below like a kid telling scary stories at an overnight camp out.

She almost laughed at the thought. Anyone who kidnapped young women and brought them to dark, windowless rooms was definitely sinister. She wondered if the instinct to laugh while being held captive by a malevolent stranger was abnormal. Probably. Maybe she had hit her head while unconscious. Maybe she was drugged. She struggled to contain the hysterical giggles that bubbled in her chest. She was mostly successful, but a hint of a smile must have escaped, because the man grinned wider, and said, "Happy to see me, my pet?"

"Who are you?" Bella tried to sound strong and unafraid, but her voice was hoarse and shaky.

"I am the Creator." He chuckled, sounding more like Santa Claus than a criminal. "And you are the future. But for the sake of disposing with some of the formalities, you may call me Joham."

"What do you mean, I'm the future? What are you going to do to me?"

"I mean exactly what I say, you are the future. You are here to be Mother to a god."

A draft blew up from under the door, and Bella shivered. "God? I don't understand."

"You will be so much more than biology made you to be," Joham continued dreamily. "Human and vampire kind are both fundamentally flawed you see. Only by uniting the two, by ushering in the light of a new day, can we reach our true potential. You will be remembered by the children of my new world as a great hero, and not as the animal your low birth dictates you are."

Bella knew from her conversation with Alice that it was forbidden to tell humans about their existence. Some inner voice told her playing dumb was necessary, not only for her own safety, but for Alice's. "Vampires?" she asked in a small voice. The red-eyed man—Joham—just laughed.

"Don't let's play coy, my dear," he said warmly, like a grandfather teasing a beloved grandchild. "Let us see each other for who—and _what_— we are. We are past the time for games. I had hoped that my letters and gifts would prepare you for this moment. You must understand what an honor it is to be singled out. The offspring you bear will make you a goddess yourself, for a short time. And when it comes time to begin its new life, your blood will sustain the child."

A wave of nausea hit her as she pushed herself back off the mat, her back hitting the cool stone wall. "Are you going to r...rape me?"

Joham made a snuffly, tsking sound. It was so out of character that Bella struggled with the insane urge to laugh again. "Rape? Certainly not. You will give yourself to me—your maidenhead, your womb, your devotion, and your life. It is a great honor. I thought I had made that clear in our correspondence."

Anger washed over her, temporarily overwhelming her fear. "Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but someone else beat you to my 'maidenhead.' And for your information, rape and murder is no great honor."

Joham looked affronted. "What a queer, horrible way to think about your destiny. You're no victim, darling. You are so powerful, in your own way." He cocked his head and frowned. "I'm disappointed that you won't ever be an immortal yourself. Your light indicates you have incredible strength. A uniquely strong defensive gift."

"My ... my light?"

"I have a certain talent for noticing the gifts of others. The most powerful specimens, like you, lovely girl, give off an aura. Depending on the flavor and strength of the gift... offensive, defensive, etcetera, the color of this aura shifts in hue and brightness. I admit, I've never seen someone who shines quite such a rosy shade of pink."

"Pink?" Bella was nonplussed, too shocked for the moment to remember to be scared. It sounded like something ridiculous her mother might say. "I have a pink aura?"

"Quite a pretty one. It enhances your natural beauty. As I said, a pity. Nahuel!" He called toward the door, and it swung open soundlessly. A dark-skinned man, maybe a few years older than Bella, glided into the room. His lithe, slim body moved with the same queer grace as the other vampires Bella had encountered thus far, but there was something different about him. As he neared the flickering light of Joham's candle, she could see that his skin wasn't as chalky, and his eyes were a deep mahogany, not gold or red. Still, it was obvious to Bella that Nahuel, if that was his name, was something more than mere human.

"My first born," Joham said fondly, patting the man's shoulder with an affectionate smile. His obvious paternal pride sent a wave of disgust through Bella. Nahuel's stony expression did not waver. "A child of the new order, though his mother was nothing special, I'm afraid. He serves as my assistant. I have some things to attend to, so I must leave you for a time. Nahuel will keep you company while you await my return." He placed the lit candle on the floor, away from Bella's reach.

As he swept from the room, he paused behind her, bending at the waist to brush his nose across the crown of her head. His breath ruffled her hair. "Delicious."

The door shut behind him, and Bella sank into herself, hugging her knees and shivering uncontrollably. When she couldn't hold back her tears, she leaned her face into her knees, hoping to at least muffle the sounds of her sniffles and choked sobs. Her entire world had changed in a single day, and the shock of it was too much for her to process.

She wondered if anyone had noticed she was missing. Had Alice followed her, or simply given her up as a lost cause? It was doubtful her parents would realize anything was wrong for weeks. She never called, and they rarely checked up on her. Maybe if she had bothered to make friends at school, someone would have realized she had disappeared. But there was no one.

Unbidden, the boy from the post office—Edward?—flashed through her mind. She had no idea what made her think of him, especially at that moment. He was nosy and seemed to have a hero complex, not her type at all. But maybe the type to come looking for a missing girl.

The next moment she scoffed at herself. How would he know she was missing? She had done everything she could to discourage him. He didn't know anything about her—where she lived, where she went to school, or what her routine was. No, she was on her own.

Nahuel was sat silent and motionless, save for uncomfortable little twitches of his arms and legs as he sat across from her. Bella wasn't sure whether she was grateful that he was less talkative than his father, or if his stoicism frightened her even more. This could be her only opportunity to scavenge information about her situation that wasn't tainted by Joham's particular brand of madness. She wiped her eyes and looked up at him.

"What's going to happen to me?" she asked shakily. Nahuel blinked once, slowly, as if her words had pulled him from some deep reverie. He stared at her gravely for several long moments before he spoke, his voice a deep and unexpected bass.

"Exactly what he said would happen. You will be impregnated, either by Joham or another vampire."

The words brought another wave of nausea, but Bella forced herself to maintain eye contact. "You make it sound so... clinical," she accused. "Call a spade a spade. I'm going to be raped."

Nahuel gave a half shrug. "They will be gentle. The process requires a certain care be taken; vampires are much stronger than humans and they won't want to damage you." He gazed off into the distance, as if recalling some long ago memory. "The baby will grow quickly. In less than a month, it will rip its way free, killing you in the process." He dropped his eyes. "It will drink your blood. And then the baby will be raised in a nursery in the city of Volterra, in Italy."

She expelled a shaky breath and blinked away more tears. "Is that what happened to your mother?"

He looked up sharply, an unhappy frown on his face. "It's what happens to all of them."

"Are there a lot of you?"

"Hybrids, like me?" She nodded, and his frown deepened. "More every day. I just took a new baby back to the nursery. A girl."

"Your sister?" she ventured.

"Ye-es." His answer was slow, hesitant. "Genetically, I suppose. Half-sister. I don't spend much time at the nursery anymore. We're not really a family. It's more... militaristic than that."

Bella's mind raced, grappling with his words and the strange, sad undertone in his voice. It sounded almost as if Nahuel regretted his lifestyle, or at least parts of it. If she could capitalize on that, it was possible he would help her escape.

"Do you have a family of your own? Besides the other... hybrids, I mean?"

He smiled softly. "Not as such. I don't have children, if that's what you're asking. We're not even sure that's possible. Hybrids are not permitted to attempt it. But there is..." He hesitated, and his eyes became warm and unfocused. It reminded her of the way her mother looked when she talked about her husband, Phil.

"But there's someone you love? Do you have a wife?"

His smile widened. "Not in the way humans mean it. But yes, I have a mate. Her name is Nessie. Vanessa. She's an instructor at the nursery, another hybrid."

"Is she your sister?" She couldn't help the disgusted look on her face, though she tried to mask it quickly. Nahuel, however, just laughed.

"No, she isn't. She was sired by a member of the Collective. They don't allow her to travel very much. She's far too useful for them to let her out of their sight just yet. She is a captive, if not in name, then in practice."

It was amazing to her how quickly his mood shifted. As he spoke of his wife's captivity, his voice deepened further, and an expression close to fury clouded his face.

His fury scared her, but she wanted to keep him talking. "Useful how?" she asked gently.

"She's talented, like your offspring will be, like many of the other hybrids. After a little experimentation, my father learned that those with an aura of _power_," he practically sneered the word, "produced better offspring. Nessie's mother was telekinetic, we think, although as she's dead, there's no way to be certain. Her father is telepathic. The combination of those two gifts turned out to be rather potent."

"I don't understand." She had lost the thread of his explanation somewhere around 'telekinetic.'

"What my father has discovered," Nahuel explained, his voice patient and slow, as if he was talking to a toddler, "is that a hybrid is much more likely to be born with some kind of innate talent if both of the parents, human and vampire, are gifted. Most often, the children exhibit a sort of inverted version of their parents' gifts, and the combinations can lead to some miraculous things. Nessie is a sort of living two-way receiver. Like... a radio."

Seeing that Bella was still confused, he went on. "She can read the minds of those she touches, like her father. But she can also project those thoughts into the minds of others, also through touch."

"Like a radio," Bella repeated, marveling at the thought.

He nodded once.

The implications of what he was saying were too far-reaching for Bella to fully process. Joham clearly had a mission—he wasn't just breeding vampire-human hybrids, he was breeding _gifted_ hybrids. And if Nahuel was any indication, hybrids could more easily blend in with humans. This realization made Bella wonder if this was part of the threat Alice saw—perhaps this was the real threat to humankind.

She wondered if Alice and her underground rebellion knew about Joham's experiments, and what they would do if they found out. The odds were stacked even further against them than they thought.

"You said... you said that the nursery was in Volterra? Is that the city where the Collective is based?"

"Correct."

"And they're supporting this little project? Isn't there a risk of exposure for vampires?" Her curiosity was pushing the fear and disgust from her body. She had always liked a good mystery; besides, discovering the whys and wherefores kept her mind off the terrifying not-so-distant future.

"I have my theories about why the Collective indulges Joham's whims. Perhaps they intend to use us as an army." The vague undertone of disgust was back. Nahuel looked away and shut his mouth with a snap, as if he was afraid he'd said too much. That topic was closed, it seemed. Bella shifted gears.

"You said that you don't know if hybrids can reproduce. You have a mate. Couldn't you try and find out?"

His face hardened further, and he kept his eyes fixed on a point not far from Bella's left foot. "As I said, we are not permitted to try. Few in Volterra even know that we are mates, my father and hers excluded, for obvious reasons."

"It must suck to have a mind-reader for a father-in-law," she joked weakly. His grim smile gave nothing away.

"You have no idea."

Quiet fell between them, and although Nahuel seemed perfectly content to leave it that way, Bella wracked her brain to come up with something, anything, that would turn his sympathy toward her. It was a long shot; after all, he was his father's assistant. The plight of one human woman probably didn't mean much to someone who had fed on the blood of his own mother. But then she remembered the miserable look on his face when he spoke of the dead mothers, and the sadness in his voice when he spoke of the children he wasn't allowed to have. It was worth a shot.

"Please," she said suddenly, catching them both by surprise. "Please, don't let my life end this way. It doesn't have to be like this."

"There is no other way," he said slowly, as if the words hurt coming out. "Neither of us is free to make this choice. If I help you get free, he'll only find you again. He's followed you for too long to let you go so easily."

"I have friends," she said in a hushed whisper. "Friends who are working for freedom. Freedom from the Collective, freedom from their rules, and freedom from their control. Don't you see, Nahuel?"

He finally looked at her then, and in the flickering light of the candle, his eyes glowed a warm chocolate brown.

"We can both be free," she whispered. "What will your life be like if things continue the way they are? You aren't even free to love your own wife! And what if they did let you have children some day? What then? You think they'll be free to live their lives? They'll be poked and prodded and tested, just like you have been. Just like Nessie, and all the other babies at the nursery."

"Enough!" His voice deepened with anger and remorse. "Enough. You're right, in a way. Your life does not have to end like this." He stared her down, as if to make sure that she understood the solemnity of the moment. "But mark my words, Isabella. If he finds you again, still human, no one will be able to save you."

"I understand."

He stood swiftly, almost instantaneously. If Bella had not been looking straight at him, she would have missed the movement. "There isn't much time. We've talked too long."

They emerged from the windowless room into a basement of some sort, then up, up, up through labyrinthine halls and endless stairways, past countless closed doors.

"Where are we?" Bella panted after a few minutes of jogging after him. Nahuel didn't pause in his answer.

"Mental hospital."

_What better place to lose my mind, _Bella thought sardonically.

Her eyes had adjusted to the dim light by the time they reached the street, but she still had no sense of what part of the city they were in. As she took in the buildings around them, she realized she wasn't sure they were even in Lake Forest.

"I'll have to carry you," Nahuel said briskly. "I will return you to your car, then you must find your friends and tell them to protect you. Heed my advice, Isabella. This will be your only chance."

Without waiting for a response, he scooped her up like a rag doll and gently flung her over his shoulder. He moved at a terrifying speed, and she clung to him like a baby sloth, eyes closed and mouth screwed shut to help her resist the urge to scream. His body was hot, burning up, and with her ear to his back she could hear the steady _thumpa-thumpa_ of his heartbeat. He wasn't human, but he wasn't an undead monster, and for the moment, that was all the comfort Bella needed. She chose to forget the likelihood that she would be an undead monster herself someday soon.

Pressed up against Nahuel with her eyes shut tight, she had no way of knowing how many miles they ran, but she suspected that the hospital was in Chicago or one of its suburbs, because it didn't seem to take long at all for him to come to a graceful stop in front of her dilapidated old truck. It was parked right where she left it before she followed Alice down the rabbit hole. This morning? Yesterday? Last week? She had no way of knowing how long she had been gone, but she hoped it hadn't been long.

Nahuel wasn't even breathing hard as he set her upright on the ground.

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "I know how much of a risk you took helping me today."

"I doubt that very much," he said grimly. Then his head jerked up toward the end of the street and his eyes focused on something that Bella could not yet see. "They're coming for you. Remember what I said."

He was gone before she had a chance to nod.

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><p><strong>AN: I hope this clears up some of the questions you had about who had kidnapped Bella. Enough of you have commented on Alice's faulty vision that I feel I should clarify something... most people write Alice as some kind of all-knowing, ever-present goddess of fortune telling. That is not this story. Alice doesn't see everything, and sometimes her visions have flaws or are missing information. Anyway, many thanks go out to daisy3853, BittenBee, katinki01, and hmonster4. Without you, this fic simply would not be. Thank you to all of you for reading. As always, your thoughts are welcome. :) **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own next to nothing.**

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><p>In a dark and windowless room, a son waited for his father. He had been sitting alone in the dark for nearly an hour, and he knew that it was only a matter of time before his father returned and discovered what he had done. And then, he would be punished.<p>

As he contemplated his fate, Nahuel tried to understand why he had risked everything to defy his masters. The small human girl was hardly extraordinary-neither a great beauty nor terribly intelligent. In fact, from all appearances she was perfectly average. Only the fact that Joham had chosen her indicated there was more to her than met the eye.

But something about her spoke to him. Her tearful pleading, the desperation in her voice... she had moved a part of him that he usually kept dormant on these outings. All the girls were fearful, of course, and Nahuel did not begrudge them their terror. Despite Isabella's fear, however, and her obvious panic, she had asked about him. She wanted to hear about his life…about Nessie. Yes, despite appearances, this girl was different. He made a snap decision, towing her to safety and warning her that her friends would have to act quickly to save her life.

Now, there was nothing to do but wait. Running was not an option – without Nessie, his life was meaningless. Volterra was a locked fortress. If he left now, he'd never see her again.

He heard Joham coming then, the sturdy black boots that he always wore clacking rapidly against the tile floor in the hallway. Any moment now. Nahuel tensed against the wall.

"I have returned, my darling," Joham called, his voice sweet and low through the metal door. Nahuel could tell that Joham had already sensed something was off. There was a curious, hard edge to his voice as he spoke. He had probably realized that only one rapid heartbeat echoed in the room, and that her lingering scent was not sufficient for a living, breathing human girl. Nevertheless, he continued to speak to her. "Isabella? Are you alone, beloved?"

There was the sound of a key in a lock and then, slowly, _finally_, the door swung open.

It took less than a second for him to confirm Isabella's conspicuous absence.

Joham's eyes shone with rage, red irises becoming swallowed by obsidian, and his ever-present sickly smile morphed into a terrifying sneer.

"What have you done with Isabella?" Joham's head swiveled from side to side, as if his sharp eyes could detect traces of the missing girl within the narrow confines of the room.

"She is gone," Nahuel responded quietly, keeping his voice level despite his rising fear. "Isabella is out of your reach now."

Before Nahuel could do more than flinch, Joham flitted across the room and backhanded him with his full strength. The cement wall cracked in several places, and a shower of grit and dust rained down on Nahuel's head.

"Insolent boy!" Joham hissed. "Do you know what you have done? You've ruined everything."

"There will be other mothers," Nahuel said, rubbing his jaw absently.

"Other mothers, yes," Joham responded, looming over him. "But Isabella was special. You _knew _that. You knew I had plans for her! And still you betray your master?"

The full measure of his transgression hit Nahuel as he stared into the mad eyes of his father. He pulled his arms and legs tightly into his chest and closed his eyes. Nessie's face, pale and beautiful, burned into the back of his eyelids. Would he ever see her again? Had he sacrificed his own life for the life of a mere human?

As if in answer to his silent thoughts, Joham spoke. "A pity you are not as breakable as your useless mother." His father's voice was cool, steady. In his secret heart, it was this tone that scared Nahuel most. When his father was calm and calculating, he was also at his most insane. There was no predicting Joham in this mood. "I could destroy you on my own, of course, but I will not sully my hands with your treasonous blood. Regardless, your actions will have consequences. I shall take you to the Collective and let them sort you out. Dealing with you myself would be more expedient, of course, but it may jeopardize my project at a crucial time. Visionless fools, they'd destroy genius for a minor infraction if it suited them. Perhaps I will be feeling generous upon our arrival, and I will ask Aro to spare your life."

"You are most generous and kind, Master," Nahuel murmured, not meeting his father's mad eyes. He knew what awaited him in Volterra. Aro would have his thoughts and memories, and Isabella would be exposed, together with her friends. He only hoped he had given them enough time to save her.

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry for the review reply fail this week. And for how short this chapter is. There are a couple of short chapters like this, so...sorry. It works best this way. Anyway - thank you to daisy3853, BittenBee, katinki01, hmonster4, and opheliabreathes for their feedback and support. And thank you to all of you for reading! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. I own very little.**

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><p>Alice approached her slowly, as if she was a wild animal, liable to spook and bolt at the slightest provocation. Jasper hung back, watching the scene unfold with undisguised curiosity.<p>

"Bella?" Alice called when she was within a few yards of the girl. Bella's long, dark hair was tangled in knots and sticking up at odd angles, and she was shivering slightly in the cool, early evening air. The rain had passed, and the clean fragrance of freshly washed pavement and wet grass accentuated the scent of her adrenaline. Alice could smell the potent hormone coming off of her in waves.

When she didn't get a reaction, Alice crept closer, her feet making no sound on the cement. "Bella, where did you go? And how did you get here?"

Slowly, Bella turned. Her eyes stared hollowly, and her breaths came quick and short. Alice knew enough to recognize the early signs of shock, and a glance at Jasper confirmed it.

"She's a mess," Jasper said quietly. "I'll keep her calm, but we need to get her gone before anyone sees her."

"You're safe now, all right?" Alice murmured. Jasper sent soothing waves of calm out toward the two women, and she reached out to touch Bella's hand. Bella flinched and snapped her arm back to her chest. Her expression cleared somewhat, and she took a deep, slow breath.

"You have to take me somewhere he can't find me." The sudden, desperate plea took Alice by surprise and sent her mind racing. It was true, then. Someone had manipulated her second sight and taken Bella. She had gone completely off the map, so to speak, even if it was only for a few hours. The idea that such a thing was even possible scared Alice almost as much as her visions of what would happen should she fail.

"You'll be safe with me." Her voice was reassuring, and the authoritative tone, combined with the feelings of safety and peace that Jasper was projecting, were all it took for Bella to nod her agreement. "We're going to make sure he doesn't find you," Alice continued, though she still wasn't exactly sure who _he_ was. "I'm taking you to my house outside the city. Why don't we take your truck? I'll drive."

Bella nodded robotically and climbed into the cab of the truck.

"Follow us," Alice said over her shoulder. She didn't have to look to know that Jasper would be there, out of sight, protecting them. He was a gift, and she would treasure him for as long as fate or luck allowed.

She knew it would have been faster to run Bella back, but the truck provided a little bit of familiarity for the frightened girl. That comfort was all Alice could offer. Nothing that came next would be easy.

It had been almost an hour since she and Jasper had left Edward with Eleazar. She wondered what Edward's immediate reaction to Eleazar's story had been, and how he was coping. Mind-reader or not, the revelation that vampires existed, and that he was about to become one, would shock the bravest man.

She replayed her vision of Edward protecting Bella in battle. There was something striking about the way he stood, shoulders back, eyes straight ahead with a snarl on his lips. He had a fierce sort of confidence, and the vision made her think that he would flourish as a vampire in a way he hadn't as a human.

Upon arriving at the secluded house, Alice immediately ushered Bella out of the truck and up the drive. She could hear Edward and Eleazar at opposite ends of the house. Edward's heartbeat was slightly elevated, and she could hear the faint sound of music filtering through a headset: the soothing strains of one of Dvorak's cello concertos. Eleazar met them at the door.

"How did he take it?" she asked, nodding toward the second floor bedroom where Edward sat. Eleazar shrugged.

"Surprisingly well. Of course, it helps that Edward is unusually perceptive. He knew the two of us were connected somehow before I ever spoke to him. And he inferred that we had something to do with Isabella." Eleazar looked down at the human girl and smiled. "If he's this impressive as a human, I'm intrigued to see how his gift manifests itself once he's one of us. He may be more powerful than Aro."

"Does anyone else feel like we're at some kind of a petting zoo?" Jasper said, walking in with a wry smile on his face. "Or maybe a farm?" He inhaled deeply, sidling closer to Bella. Alice gave him a warning glare.

"You're not funny. Go check on Edward, please."

"I wouldn't do that just now," Eleazar interrupted. "I think he needs time to process. He's only been alone for a few minutes. Let's give him some time to come to terms with what must happen."

"Time is one thing we don't have." Alice muttered.

"You're right, you don't have any time." The three vampires looked over at Bella in surprise and confusion. Despite her still-haggard appearance, she seemed to have regained a bit of her spark. Her eyes had lost their haunted look, and her shoulders were no longer hunched inward. "The Collective is raising an army, too."

"What are you talking about?" Alice demanded, grabbing her arm and leading her to the living room. "What kind of an army? For what purpose? And how do you know?" Jasper and Eleazar trailed behind wearing matching concerned frowns.

"Nahuel told me. The one who took me, Joham, he's... he's experimenting with human women. He's been getting them pregnant for years and then raising the children in Volterra."

"How is that even possible?" Jasper asked, bewildered. "The only way to make new vampires is by using venom. We're sterile."

"It sounds like he only uses human women and vampire men. Maybe it's just the female vampires who are sterile. I didn't ask for details, although he promised to show me later." Bella's voice sounded harsh to her own ears.

"Who's Nahuel?" Alice interrupted. "You said he told you all this?"

"He's one of the hybrids. That's what they call themselves...hybrids. He was the first." She looked from one perfect, disgusted face to another, suddenly wanting to explain to them that Nahuel wasn't the villain in this drama. "He didn't seem to agree with Joham's experiments. He's got a wife, another hybrid. She's... I didn't really understand it but he said she was being held captive. I think if it wasn't for her, he wouldn't be involved at all. He helped me escape. I think he felt sorry for me."

"And you're absolutely sure that the Collective is involved in this?" Alice pressed. "Think, Bella, what exactly did Nahuel tell you?"

"There's a nursery at Volterra where all the children are raised and trained. He mentioned instructors, and that there are strict rules about what they can and can't do. They're not allowed to try to have children with each other, I guess."

"I wonder why that is," Alice mused.

"Joham was the one sending the flowers," Bella said quietly. "And the letters. He's insane. He kept talking about how special I was, and how I would be the mother of a god. He was rambling about my destiny. It's like he's trying to breed superheroes or something."

"He knew about your shield," Eleazar said. "But how? He must have a talent of his own."

"My shield?"

Eleazar reached out and gently took her hand. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and smiled widely. "Of course. A shield makes perfect sense. That's why you're so central. We won't know the details until you're turned, but-"

"A shield," Alice interrupted with a wide grin. She looked at Jasper with shining eyes. "It's what we were missing. She's our defensive weapon!"

"Whoa, hold on," Bella protested. "I'm a _person_. I just got kidnapped, and barely escaped from being raped and then eaten by my own child." She shook her head vehemently and backed away, toward the front door. "What if I don't want to be your weapon? Joham kept talking about my rosy pink aura, how gifted I was and how he wanted to use me. Now you tell me the exact same thing, without giving me any reason to trust you."

"I know it's difficult, child," Eleazar said. "You're perfectly right. You have no logical reason to trust us. It will require a leap of faith, I'm afraid."

"I've told you what will happen if you don't help us," Alice added, desperation tainting her otherwise reserved features. "Think of your family, your friends. Think of your _species_, for God's sake. Joham won't stop with you. There will be other women who aren't as fortunate as you were."

"You're stressing her out," Jasper muttered. "Look, Bella, we've got a little bit of time at least. Why don't you sit down and think about what we've said?"

"Do you see the future, too?" she sniped bitterly.

"No, I'm empathic. I can feel what you're feeling, and I can influence those feelings." When Bella looked skeptical, he quirked an eyebrow. "For instance, I can make you feel sadness."

Instantly, her throat tightened and tears welled up in her eyes. Waves of despair made her bones heavy and weighed her down until she thought she would collapse.

"Or lust."

The glint of his red eyes was suddenly beguiling, and Bella's blood seemed to light on fire. Her toes tingled and her lips practically itched for his. Before she could do more than take one, tremulous step toward him, he raised a hand.

"Or courage."

The fire in her veins morphed, buoying her. A warm, secure feeling filled her chest, and she stood straighter, stronger. She felt like a helium balloon, tugging at her strings to let her go and out into the wild blue. In that moment, she knew she could do anything, fear or no fear, gift or no gift.

"That's enough, Jasper," Alice sighed. "Stop showing off."

Slowly, the feeling leaked from her, like air from that selfsame balloon, until she was just Bella. Ordinary Bella, with tangles in her hair. Not a super-hero. Not even a hero...or heroine. Just a girl, faced with a choice.

Life, or death?

"I'll take you upstairs," Alice said quietly, looping her arm through Bella's once more and leading her toward a staircase she hadn't noticed before. The act was familiar and intimate, but it felt reassuring, almost like a mother's touch. "There's a shower up there, and you can change your clothes and have some time alone. After that..."

She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't need to. Both of them knew what came next.

The bathroom was gigantic, every inch of it covered in marble. A giant mirror covered half of one wall, but Bella didn't look at herself. Instead, she turned the tap in the shower, allowing steam to fill the room and fog her senses. In the thick, white mist, she could pretend that nothing had changed. She washed her hair and conditioned it, working through each tangle with her fingers. When it hung thick and straight down her back, she shampooed it again, just to have an excuse to stand under the hot water a little while longer.

Two large, fluffy white towels waited for her on the counter when she finally stepped out. Next to them, a plush robe, a pair of sweat pants, underwear, and a long sleeved t-shirt were folded neatly. She hesitated, then put it all on, layering on the comfort and reveling in the familiar warmth of jersey knit and cotton.

Once her hair was wrapped in a towel and her body was warm and comfortable in several layers of soft, clean fabric, she cracked the door open. The second floor was quiet, except for the faint sounds of music filtering into the hallway from a room at the end of the hall.

She crept toward the sound, unsure if she was approaching man, woman, or vampire. Nothing would have surprised her.

But when she opened the door and found the boy from the post office, she _was _surprised. Edward, the very person she had been walking to see that morning, before she followed Alice, before Joham kidnapped her. Edward, sitting in a gigantic, puffy, red armchair, listening to something classical and depressing and looking perfectly ridiculous.

He stared.

She stared back.

"What are you—"

"How did you—"

They both shut their mouths and resumed staring. When he didn't say anything else, Bella walked into the room and took a seat on a chaise that matched Edward's chair. She let her eyes drift around the room, noting tiny details here and there. The walls were paneled in a rich, red wood. Deep shelves laden with thick, dusty books spanned the length of the room, and hidden in the corner was an expensive stereo, the source of the depressing tune that filled the room.

"So, vampires, huh?" Edward said quietly. She looked at him again, noticing for the first time that he didn't look like the handsome, smiling clerk she met at the post office. His hair stood up in every direction, a bit like a mad scientist, and there were shadows under his eyes that indicated he'd been getting about as much sleep as she had. "A normal, human stalker wasn't enough for you, was it? No, only the best, most dangerous _undead _stalkers for Isabella."

"Don't call me that," Bella snapped, pulling her bathrobe tighter around her neck, hiding her t-shirt and sweat pants from view. Edward stared in confusion.

"Isn't that your name?"

"Yes. No. No one calls me that." She didn't know if she would ever be able to answer to her full name again. 'Isabella' had become Joham's name for her.

"Okay," he said slowly, staring at her with an odd expression on his face. "What do you prefer? Izy? Belle? Ella? Ellie? Bella?"

"Bella," she interrupted. "Just Bella."

"Okay, Just Bella." He laughed unpleasantly, and Bella felt a surge of anger.

"You know, I was planning on apologizing to you this morning. I felt bad about yelling at you when you were only trying to help. Now I think maybe you had it coming."

He sighed heavily and scrubbed his hands over his face. "It's been a long day, okay? I was knocked unconscious, abducted from my job, told I have telepathic powers, and then sent up here to make my peace with the existence of vampires before I become one myself. I hope you'll forgive me, your highness, for being a little _cranky_." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and glared, heavy eyebrows framing bright eyes. His shoulders hunched inward slightly, showing his discomfort, but his chin jutted out defiantly.

"You? Why do you have to become a vampire?" The revelation shook Bella slightly, and she forgot to be angry for a moment.

"Because your good friends down there say so? Because I'll be able to read minds, or sort of do already? Because Jasper wants to bite me and Alice won't let him kill me? Who the hell knows." He smirked. "Some mind reader I am, huh? The best I can tell, you and I are have big roles to play in whatever fight is coming. You more than me. Also, we know they exist, which makes us a big liability."

They were quiet again, this time openly examining each other. Bella was so caught up in watching his hands flex on the arms of his chair that when he spoke again, she jumped.

"I wonder who'll feed my cat."

She blinked at him, confused. "Your cat? That's who you're worried about? What about your parents? Family?"

He shrugged. "I don't have any. My parents died when I was in high school, and I'm an only child. No other family to speak of. But my cat...well, she's always there for me. I hope someone takes care of her."

"You're really just going along with all this?" The disbelief in her tone surged and she stood abruptly, the sides of her robe flapping behind her.

"You're not?" He pulled his long legs up on the chair, hugging them to his chest. The action was childlike and disarming, but the open look on his face, the way he just seemed to be accepting their fate, enraged Bella.

"They want us to give up everything, Edward. Our lives. Our futures. Not only that, but they want us to fight in this imaginary war that they're charging into headfirst. What are the odds we survive that? Now I don't know about you, but this seems like a pretty basic fight or flight situation to me. I pick flight."

He snorted. "Figures."

"What?" she demanded, incensed. "What figures?"

"That the girl who I'm supposed to give up my life to defend is a coward. It figures."

"No one is asking you to-"

"That's exactly what they're asking me." He cut her off, dropping his feet to the floor and leaning forward again. His eyes were dark and angry, and combined with his mad scientist hair, it gave him a dangerous sort of edge. "And it makes sense to me. All I've done since I met you is worry about you and try to help you. When Eleazar told me about what they've been planning, and how important you are, that made sense to me, too. I have to do this. I feel like my whole life, this is what I've been waiting for. This moment. This chance. And now, when I've decided to have faith, to trust, to give everything to this crazy whatever-the-hell scheme, you're standing there telling me 'no, thank you.' It just fucking figures."

Silence filled the space between them as the weight of Edward's words settled over them.

"I don't like you very much." Bella said quietly. His speech had completely overwhelmed her, made her think about things she'd rather not.

"Well, the feeling is mutual, sweetheart."

"You don't like me, but you're willing to die for me."

"Sucks, doesn't it?" He snorted. "How appropriate." He gave her one last, withering stare, then closed his eyes and leaned back, apparently losing himself in the slow, sad sounds of the cello once more.

She watched him for a long time, eyes closed, head thrown back, his long neck stretched out in an almost artistic manner. And as she watched, she thought.

Unlike Edward, she had parents. They didn't have a close relationship, but they would miss her if she were gone. She would miss them, too. She wracked her brain, trying to remember the last time she spoke to either of them. Last Friday she had called her mother, but they hadn't talked long. Bella was on her way to a class, and her mother was in the middle of running errands. It had been over a month since she talked to her father. Chief Swan wasn't really a phone kind of guy, never had been. She couldn't remember the last time he had told her he loved her. Even so, she knew he'd be heartbroken if she died.

She continued her mental inventory of personal connections. Out of her coworkers at the sandwich shop where she worked on campus, only one person could be considered more than a passing acquaintance. Angela was a sweet girl, kind and polite, but they didn't hang out or have girls' nights in. They had never gotten drunk and shared secrets. Bella wasn't even entirely sure she knew Angela's last name.

Classmates. There were a few she interacted with on a regular basis. Jessica had been in at least one of her classes every semester since freshman year. She had a study group with her, Mike, and Tyler. They ordered pizza and drank beer and occasionally actually studied. She slept with Mike once when they were both drunk. They never talked about it.

As she catalogued her life, breaking down her friendships and relationships into neat categories, she realized that her life wasn't all that different from Edward's. In a sense, she was waiting, too. Waiting for something to happen, for her life to start. Waiting for a sign. High school. College. Her first real job. Or a tiny, future-seeing vampire to reveal her destiny.

"How do you know that you're supposed to do this?" she asked, her voice raised above the mellow strains of music.

He tapped a finger to his forehead without opening his eyes. "Mind reader, remember?"

"You're not funny."

He sighed wearily. "Don't you ever just get a feeling?"

"No," she said honestly.

"Well, I do. I've got a good gut instinct on when someone is lying to me, or what they're not saying, even if they are telling the truth. And Alice and Eleazar, hell, even Jasper, they all strike me as honest types. Alice is hiding something," here he looked troubled, "but she's been completely honest about all the details she's shared. I can't go back to before. I can't unknow these things. And if they're telling the truth, then that means that I can do something meaningful with my life. I want that, even if it means that I have to give up everything to have it."

"Aren't you a good little soldier," she mused.

"I thought about enlisting once. Right before my parents died. My mother put her foot down. 'Don't you dare, Edward Anthony,'" he mimicked. A slight smile graced his face, and it made him handsome in Bella's eyes, just for a moment. "After they were... well, I couldn't think about it again. Knowing that they were against it."

He didn't know why he was telling her all this. It went against his nature to share much personal information with anyone, even those who he considered friends. But something about her frank stare and the lost look in her eyes made him want to share a piece of himself, even if he never got anything in return. She surprised him, though.

"When I was in fifth grade, I was totally fascinated with martial arts." She looked down at her hands, nervous about the way he was looking at her. "I made my dad sign me up for kickboxing classes and Tai Kwon Do. I thought it would be cool. I watched a ton of bad kung fu movies, and on the first day of class I showed up ready and excited to get started."

"What happened?" he prodded, when she didn't continue.

"Some of the advanced students did a demonstration for us. They were so fast, and the way they moved...I just couldn't ever imagine being like that. I made my dad take me home. I quit before I ever got started."

"Didn't you ever regret it?" he asked quietly. She grimaced, and he scowled at the floor. "Quitting isn't an option for me." His words were quieter still, almost as if he didn't intend for her to hear him. "It never has been."

"I'm not a quitter," she said fiercely.

"No?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"No. And I don't appreciate you making judgments about me when you don't even know me. Just because you're willing to commit suicide for strangers-"

"Stop," he ordered. "Just stop. I've made my decision. I'm going to do this."

"Fine, then so am I." She stood up and strode toward the door. The towel that was wrapped around her hair toppled over mid-step, and sent tangles of rich, brown hair tumbling down over her shoulders.

Before she could make it out the door, he was up and across the room, a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"What?" she shouted. When she turned to face him, angry red spots stood out on her pale face, and her eyes blazed with fury. "Go ahead, call me a coward again. Call me a quitter!"

"This isn't a decision you should make because you're scared or angry," he said firmly. "You're a pain in the ass, and I don't like you, but I don't think you should agree to live the rest of your existence as a blood-sucking monster because you're ticked off at me, or because you don't want to admit to a less than flattering personality trait."

"What the hell do you know?" But her tone was less aggressive now, defeated.

"More than you think," he answered softly. She looked at him searchingly, but he only smiled bitterly and shrugged. He left the room, closing the door behind him. She stood, arms crossed over her chest, her wet hair sticking to her neck and cheeks, and stared at the door.

It wasn't until several hours later that she descended back into the living room to where the others sat. Alice and Jasper were curled up on a love seat, staring curiously at Edward. Eleazar was nowhere to be seen.

"That's disgusting," Jasper was saying. "You don't actually have to eat it. It was a joke."

"It's chocolate flavored, that's not disgusting. I mean, it's not my idea of a last meal, but if this is as good as it gets, I'll take it."

Bella stepped off the stairs, and a floorboard creaked under her feet. All three of them turned to look at her, and she saw what Jasper was turning his nose up at.

"Count Chocula?" she laughed harshly. "Really?"

"Joke's on Jasper," Alice said with a smile. "It stinks."

"How offensive could it be?" asked Bella, nonplussed. "It's just cereal."

"You'll be amazed how much your sense of smell changes," Alice said. "Things that used to make your stomach growl will disgust you, and things that you think should be disgusting will be completely wonderful."

Edward set down his spoon and looked from Alice to Bella. "She _will _be amazed?" he asked. Alice just looked to Bella.

"Yes," she said firmly. "I will. I'll do it."

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><p><strong>AN: Random comment, but I think cereal smells terrible. Thank you to bittenbee, katinki01, and hmonster4 for this one. Thanks to every one of you for reading. As always, your comments are welcome.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vamps. I own nearly nothing.**

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><p>Bella and Edward sat on two thin cots, placed side by side in the same room where they had met earlier. It had been cleared of all other furniture.<p>

"When you wake up, you'll probably be a little disoriented," Alice explained. "It's not uncommon for newborns to get a bit violent, and I really like that furniture set."

Jasper snorted, and she glanced back at him with a wistful smile on her lips. "Go ahead and laugh, but once you've lived in a fixed location for longer than a couple weeks at a time, you start to get attached to personal possessions."

"You move that often?" Edward asked, arching an eyebrow at the blonde vampire in the corner. Jasper grinned evilly.

"When your diet requires you to chow down on the local human population, it's in your best interest not to stick to one place for too long."

"You don't have to eat humans, Jasper," Alice cut in. "You know that. There's another way."

"Not everyone can be so sacrificing," Eleazar said. "I can't imagine how you stomach your diet, to be honest."

The five of them had spent the last hour or so discussing the mechanics of vampires and their lives, and Edward and Bella had both been surprised to learn that some vampires, like Alice, chose to abstain from human blood and hunt animals instead. That was the reason for the odd, golden hue of her eyes, as opposed to the rich crimson tint that Jasper and Eleazar shared.

"You've met Carlisle," she answered easily. "I thought he made a good argument. And besides, I like being able to be a little more stationary." She turned back to the humans. "Carlisle Cullen is a great man; you'll meet him soon. He and his wife, Esme, are coming down to help you adjust to your new lives."

"You're not leaving us?" Bella asked, panicking. For as disconcerting as the presence of an oracle could be, Alice had fast become a source of comfort and familiarity. She didn't know what she would do if Alice left.

"Of course not. But Eleazar has to go back to Italy soon, and we'll need all the help we can get."

"Since time is of the essence, I don't suppose we could get things started?" Eleazar smiled absently, but Edward thought he saw a tinge of worry lurking behind his eyes. "As the oldest and most controlled vampire present, I will be administering the venom."

Bella's hands clenched at the white sheet she sat on. Edward laughed. "What a polite way of saying you're going to bite us and kill us."

"You will be reborn," Eleazar said gently, leaning between the two of them and speaking softly. "It is … painful, probably the most painful thing you'll ever experience, in fact. But after it's over, you'll be stronger and more powerful than you can even imagine."

"I don't know about that," muttered Edward. "I have quite the imagination, and I think Bella could give me a run for my money."

Bella glared at him from her cot. "What's that supposed to mean?" While his words seemed kind, every exchange between the two since they met had been tense and laden with double-meaning.

"It means I think you have a knack for imagining something from nothing," he snapped, then winced, immediately regretting his words and tone. Despite their less than pleasant personal relationship, they were about to embark on something huge—together. He wanted to be kinder, and it frustrated him that he couldn't seem to control his reactions around Bella. "Look, I was paying you a compliment, okay? Obviously your imagination helped us out in this case."

"Damn right," she huffed, now looking anywhere but at Edward. Her eyes gave her away, though, and he thought he could see tears threatening to fall.

Alice watched them quietly from the doorway. Their faces were pale with fear, and their rapid heartbeats loud and clear in her ears. She closed her eyes briefly and searched the future, one last time.

The central vision was still the same. Nothing had changed since Edward's face had crystallized. He stood in front of Bella, stoic and strong, shoulders and back braced against the onslaught of so many enemies. In the final moments before the vision swirled and grew cloudy once more, Alice realized that he was the only one standing between Bella and the fight.

She sighed inwardly. Though she had already known that Edward was necessary, it was now obvious he was vital. There was no question that Bella would be the difference between certain defeat and their one, slim chance for victory, and now it seemed that Edward was her sole protector, at least for part of the battle ahead.

Resigned to his fate, she skimmed ahead, looking for signs that her meddling would not doom them to an unhappy eternity. Her mind was made up regardless, but it would give her peace of mind to know that happiness could possibly lay somewhere over the dark horizon.

Unexpected flickers skittered across her mind: secret smiles, two hands clasped securely between a swiftly running pair of vampires, and one still-frame image of Bella and Edward, heads thrown back in laughter, her cheek resting on his bare chest. Only possibilities at present, far from certain...but it was better than nothing. Alice's eyes flew open and she fell back into the present—to two sulky humans who didn't know how to relate to one another, thrown together by the winds of chance.

"Ready?" Eleazar asked, looking from one to the other before glancing up at Alice. She nodded once, and he smiled, reassured.

"As I'll ever be," Edward said, swallowing back his panic and looking over at Bella.

"Let's do this," Bella agreed.

The two of them shared one lingering stare before leaning back on their respective cots. Edward's fingers curled over the edge of his mattress as he gripped it tightly, resisting the urge to reach for Bella's hand and comfort her. Jasper pushed them down, anchoring each of them to their cots with one hand. A bird squawked on the windowsill, and Bella flinched.

"Easy, now," Jasper said. A rosy, carefree glow descended on Bella and Edward, and Jasper nodded at Eleazar. "It's time."

Alice turned and fled downstairs, unable to watch as Eleazar administered the fatal bites. She knew that nothing would go wrong; she had planned painstakingly for this. Nevertheless, she couldn't watch.

Seconds later, she was joined by Jasper, and as screams began to fill the air, Eleazar swept into the front room, licking his lips. A spot of blood stained his otherwise immaculate white collar.

"Well," she said, letting out a gust of unnecessary breath, "that's that."

Hope and courage surged through her, and she bounced on the balls of her feet, like a buoy at sea. Joham's plans for Bella were foiled, and Edward was still flying low under the radar. Still, she knew that this was only the first of many battles to be won; trying days lay ahead.

Jasper squeezed her shoulder. "All's well that ends well, baby girl."

"Too bad we don't know for sure how this ends," she mused, leaning into him.

"It's a good thing we've got you, then," Jasper murmured, ducking down to press his face to her hair. They stood like that for several long moments, until Eleazar cleared his throat, reminding them of his presence.

Jasper dropped his hand to Alice's waist and turned around, suddenly brisk and business-like. "Right. We've got a few days, so I suggest we get planning."

"Two days and fourteen hours, to be exact." Alice smiled, reveling in the tiny bit of certainty she could provide.

"That fast?" Jasper asked, surprised. She shrugged.

"It's not so fast. Three days is average, and the older the venom, the more potent."

He whistled. "No kidding. You're a good vintage, Eleazar."

The older vampire chuckled. "Regardless... these two are my first progeny and they'll be my last. I'm just glad I was able to control myself."

"Speaking of control, have you seen any potential problems when they wake up?" Jasper turned back to Alice.

She shook her head. "I can't see things like that. Any problems will be spur of the moment, impulsive decisions. It's useless to try to predict the actions of a newborn. There are too many variables at play."

"That's true," he agreed. "And that's why we need to make sure to keep an iron grip on the situation. I've trained newborns for battle before. They need absolute structure with no room for questions or objections. The faster they learn how to take orders, the more use they'll be to us."

"Remember that they aren't cannon fodder," Eleazar warned. "They will be young and impulsive, but they also will be vital participants in the fight. They'll need strategy, defensive skills, and at least a cursory understanding of vampire physiology."

"You're right, of course," conceded Jasper, "but they'll still need to be in fighting shape. As the only member of our little underground movement with any kind of wartime expertise, I'll take charge of that aspect. From what Alice has said, Carlisle will be able to help them get control of their special talents."

"He will," Alice agreed. "But even Carlisle won't be able to handle them on his own. We'll need help. He and Esme won't be much help controlling them physically in those first weeks. The two of us together could maybe handle one of them—not both."

"What do you suggest then?" Eleazar asked. "I can't stay any longer. I'm inviting suspicion as it is."

She hesitated, then looked at Jasper. "I know a mated couple in the Ozarks. They live in a pretty isolated area. They don't hunt humans, and they mostly keep to themselves, but they've been supportive in the past. They might agree to help."

"Might?" Jasper asked. "Why only might?"

"Emmett would help in a heartbeat," she said slowly, "but Rosalie... is a little more cautious. She'll be especially sensitive to hosting newborns, particularly newborns who didn't have much of a choice in their changing. It will have to be handled just so."

"Can you contact them?" Eleazar asked. "Before the change is complete, I mean? If I'm to arrive in Volterra on time, I must leave tonight, and I'd feel more comfortable knowing there was a plan in place for their training and protection."

Alice shook her head. "No phone. I'm not sure a postman would even know where to deliver a letter. We'll have to time our arrival just right. The last time I saw them, Emmett extended a pretty generous offer of assistance if I should need it. If we can time our approach for when Rosalie isn't present, everything should work out."

"Is _should_ the best we can do?" Jasper pressed. When Alice nodded, he sighed. "Should it is. We'll just have to risk it." He turned to Eleazar. "Something else has been bothering me. These hybrids that Bella told us about, can they be destroyed? Are they more vulnerable than vampires because of their human heritage, or are they stronger somehow? If this Nahuel is right, and they're raising an army against us, we have to know more about how to destroy them."

"Maybe we don't," Alice interjected. "Apparently Nahuel is sympathetic to our cause, or at least he disagrees with the way the Collective is using the hybrids. Maybe he's not the only one. If we can get in contact with him, we might gain a valuable ally."

They both looked to Eleazar, who frowned. "It will be risky. Especially since I wasn't even aware that the hybrids existed before Bella told us. Do you think they will be important, Alice?"

"I hadn't thought of it before, but it's possible that the hybrids are why I can't get a solid read on the future," she mused. "When Bella was with Nahuel, she disappeared. I can only see pieces of the battle, never the whole thing at once, and never one piece for any extended period of time. Maybe Joham has been creating little blind spots."

As her revelation sunk in, the three fell silent, each thinking of the possible consequences. In the sudden quiet, the screams from the second floor grew louder. Alice glanced at the ceiling with a worried sigh.

"I'm only guessing," she said finally, breaking the silence. "This has never happened to me before. But since the hybrids are the only unknown variable, unless the Collective has another weapon under its sleeve, I have to think that they'll be present, and probably playing a large role."

"The Collective has other weapons," Jasper said darkly. "We know about those. We'll have to destroy the key members of the guard or we'll never gain the upper hand."

Eleazar dropped his eyes and frowned. "Is it necessary to destroy them completely? I know they've strayed, but the Collective has been the only family Carmen and I have known for hundreds of years."

"It's the only way, Eleazar," Alice said firmly. "If we leave even one of the core guard, the tide will turn against us."

"And what if we fail?" he said quietly. "What will happen to my Carmen? I am putting her safety in your hands as well."

"The time for these questions is long past," Jasper said with a scowl. Without Eleazar, everything unraveled. "If you were having second thoughts, you should have said so. We need you now. It's too late."

Alice reached out and clasped Eleazar's hand in hers. Her tiny fingers barely wrapped around his much larger hand, but the gesture warmed him, and when he felt the surge of precognition in her touch, he remembered why he had trusted her in the beginning. "You have to have faith," she whispered. "Don't give up now, not when we're so close."

He closed his eyes briefly and nodded, and when he opened them again, she released his hand. He rolled his shoulders back and strode toward the door. "Alice, if you'll show me where you're headed with the newborns, I can direct any help I encounter to join you. It will be some time before I can get away again, but I won't be idle."

"Of course," Alice said, pulling a map from a nearby magazine rack. "Will you have time to meet with Carlisle on your way?"

"Briefly," Eleazar responded, eyes quickly scanning the map of the Ozark wilderness that Alice presented him with. He noted the coordinates marked "E&R" and folded it swiftly. "Is there a particular message you'd like me to bring?"

"Just make sure he hurries. He and Esme must arrive before the change is complete, and we'll be preparing to leave for the cabin within the week. Fill him in on all the details you can about Bella and Edward and their talents. He has to be prepared."

Jasper and Alice watched him leave as he sped away on foot toward town.

"He's anxious," Jasper commented, lightly brushing his nose over the top of Alice's head. "And more than a little doubtful."

"He won't be when it counts. He's got several stops planned on his way home, and he'll send us allies from each of them. And I've already lost thread of his future once he gets back to Volterra. He'll do what we need him to do and more. Don't you worry about Eleazar."

"I wouldn't ever bet against you, Mary Alice."

She wrinkled her nose at the use of her full name. He was the only one she had shared it with since her creator, and while she thought the combination hopelessly puritanical, the way the words fell from his lips, soft and affectionate, warmed her from the inside out. It reminded her of vague memories from her childhood, curled in front of a fireplace with a book and a blanket.

The memories from before—before the darkness of the asylum, before the change, before the future began lighting up like a road leading nowhere and everywhere—were dim, wisps of half-remembered dreams that she held onto with the iron grip of her perfect memory. Everything she did, she did for that girl, the girl from before.

Jasper's arms wrapped around her, and Alice reveled in their strong assurance, even as her heart dreaded what came next. They were both outlaws in the eyes of the Collective; he had balked at the Collective's registration laws from the beginning, and her creator had failed to register her with the proper authorities at her rebirth. If they failed, they would be destroyed, special talents notwithstanding. If they succeeded...

"My little bundle of contradictions," Jasper whispered. "Fear, hope, happiness and despair all at once? What is going on in that head of yours?"

Instead of answering, she twisted in his arms and kissed him soundly, and they lost themselves in the easy silence of gentle touches and passionate kisses until evening gave way to dawn.

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><p><strong>AN: Thank you for all your reviews! I love seeing your thoughts and predictions, and hearing what you think about Edward and Bella and their predicament. This story would not be possible without BittenBee, hmonster4, katinki01, and opheliabreathes. Thank you for reading, and as always, your thoughts are welcome. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vamps. I don't own much.**

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><p>When the flames started to subside, the first thing Edward was aware of was the sound of four people talking over each other. Two voices he thought recognized, two he did not.<p>

_Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon._ Alice's voice droned on, the words unrecognizable but gentle in their rhythm.

_He's starting to move more now. Their heartbeats are both picking up, too. The change will be coming to a head any minute now._ An unfamiliar, cultured male voice ran parallel to Alice's.

_If one of them attacks, we should be able to contain the situation. I don't know what will happen if they start fighting each other, though. Carlisle and Alice can take one, I'll have to take the other with Esme. She doesn't seem like she'll be much help, Alice was right._ That was definitely Jasper, but more disturbing than hearing his voice mashed up against the other two were the visions that accompanied the words. Edward saw caricatures of himself and a brown-haired girl leaping at each other, fighting tooth and nail and snarling viciously the whole while.

_So young. Younger than I was even. I don't feel right bringing them into this life just for violence, but I suppose it's too late for that now._ A softer female voice, tinged with worry and sadness.

Most disconcerting, above the turbulence of interlocking, overlapping voices, another conversation was taking place, doubling the voices and blending into the chaos.

"Any second now," Alice said, while at the same time her voice, oddly muted, sang "_ne hyrde ic cymlicor ceol gegyrwan_."

"Remember what I said about posture," Jasper said firmly. "Don't threaten them." As he said it, Edward saw a mob of red-eyed people, pale as death, advancing through a misty field, snarling and occasionally leaping at each other for no apparent reason.

"Of course not," the unknown woman said. "We're here to help them." _Poor dears_, her second voice added simultaneously.

While a maelstrom of sounds and visions swirled in his mind, the flames that had consumed him for what seemed like an eternity raged in his chest, forcing his heart to beat triple time.

_Steady, he's waking up._ "Get ready, Edward is coming around," Jasper's odd, double voice said.

_A staggered change, despite their nearly simultaneous bites. Fascinating_, the methodical man said. "Can he... _hear_ us?" he asked at the same time.

"I'm not sure, but I think so," Alice answered. _ða wæs on burgum Beowulf Scyldinga, leof leodcyning, longe þrage._

Edward's chest tightened and become impossibly hotter. The voices swirled in an impossible maelstrom of thoughts and images, overlapping and intertwining until the words became meaningless and the pictures dissolved in flashes of color and line. Then... nothing. His body was cool. The pain was absent. His heart no longer stuttered in his chest. And his head was still spinning with voices. His eyes snapped open and his hands flew to his ears.

"Stop it," he whispered. His voice should have been hoarse he had spent the better part of a millennia screaming against the fire, after all. But instead it was smooth and sweet, like caramel poured over ice cream. It was a stranger's voice. "Stop talking. Everyone SHUT UP."

He yelled the last part, his eyes wide in terror as he took in the four vampires who stood watching him. They stared impassively, mouths shut. Alice and Jasper were joined by a man and a woman, who Edward had never met before. What had Jasper called them? Carlisle and Esme. Their names rang bells somewhere in the back of his mind. Before the fire, he had known they were coming. The memories were dim and cloudy, though, and as fast as he grasped that their names were familiar, a sudden movement distracted him.

He whirled around, feet planted on the floor the moment he thought to put them there, and found himself staring at a girl on a cot. Isabella. But that wasn't her name... Bella. She preferred Bella. Flashes of a different girl, with the same long brown hair and petite frame flashed through his mind. She yelled a lot, he thought absently. She was frightened. And now she was groaning, cursing in one long breath with her eyes screwed shut. She was in pain. Something inside Edward snapped, and a flicker of rage grew steadily like the flames that had consumed him a short while ago.

And still the voices continued.

_þa wæs Hroðgare heresped gyfen, wiges weorðmynd, þæt him his winemagas, georne hyrdon, oðð þæt seo geogoð geweox._ Alice.

_Calm. No one is going to hurt you._ Jasper.

In the wake of Jasper's words, the tightening ropes of anxiety loosened and his rage faded into the background. His mind recognized the sensation was wrong, even as his shoulders relaxed. Edward fought the sensation, but it was no use. Turning, he faced those he now perceived as captors.

"Whatever you're doing, stop," he insisted loudly.

Jasper's eyebrows narrowed in concentration._ If he doesn't calm down soon I'll have to take him down. For everyone's safety._

Before Edward even realized he was doing it, he had crouched into a defensive stance, arms out and teeth bared. Jasper mirrored him, crouching and shifting to stand in front of Alice.

"Jasper, don't!" she cried. _Grap þa togeanes, guðrinc gefeng, atolan clommum._

It was too late. Jasper leapt forward, crashing into Edward and grappling with his outstretched arms. Edward snarled and twisted, snapping his jaws. His vision doubled—he watched a huge, hulking man with crimson eyes tear a smaller man to pieces while staring at Jasper's unfamiliar, crescent-shaped scars, which covered his face and neck. Edward's head spun. What was real? The Jasper he thought he remembered didn't have these scars, but the men who fought in his mind's eye didn't look remotely familiar.

Jasper took advantage of Edward's confusion, pinning his arms behind his back and bringing him to his knees in one swift and sure movement. Immediately, the strange man, Carlisle, was in front of him, pulling him down, while Alice braced his shoulders. They overtook him, but still, he twisted in vain.

"What's happening to me?" he cried, squeezing his eyes shut. The pictures and voices continued unceasingly, a barrage of questions, nonsensical words and unconnected images. "Make it stop!"

In the midst of the confusion, no one noticed that the stream of curse words issuing from Bella had ceased, or that there was a conspicuous absence of heartbeats in the room. As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Edward, pinned to the ground by no less than three vampires. As she processed the scene, fire flashed in her throat, burning a path deep down into her gullet. Rage and pain drove her to her feet, and she sprang up from the table with a fierce growl.

Esme was the first to reach her, as the other three were occupied. She smiled and reached out a tentative hand. "Bella? I'm Esme Cullen. I know it's very disorienting at first but you must stay—auugh!"

Before Esme could finish her sentence, Bella had ripped her off her feet and pinned her arms behind her back. The strength that surged through her was distracting—she felt like she could swim across the ocean or dig a hole to China if she wanted to. She heard the sharp crack of breaking rock as she tugged on Esme's arms, and the other woman cried out in pain.

"_Let him_ _go_," Bella snarled. "Now."

The room was dead silent as the two groups contemplated each other. After several tense seconds, Alice spoke.

"All right, Bella. We're letting him up." She raised her hands and stepped away. Jasper stared at her in disbelief, but she just narrowed her eyes. "Jasper, Carlisle, get up now. No one is going to do anything stupid. Bella is going to let Esme go. Right, Bella?"

"You first." Bella smiled sweetly and pulled Esme's right arm a little harder. As Bella processed her immense new strength, she took joy in exercising it. Somewhere else in the recesses of her suddenly expanded mind, human Bella voiced horror and confusion, but those feelings were muted, nearly silent against the onslaught of power that Bella felt by commanding this room of immortal creatures to do her bidding.

Another softer crack rang through the room. Carlisle's face twisted in anguish as he stepped slowly away from Edward.

"Jasper?" Alice prompted.

He gave Alice a hard stare, but she just nodded. Cautiously, he let go of Edward's arms and stood up. With a shove and a growl, Bella released Esme, who fell in Carlisle's waiting arms.

Edward remained crouched on the ground. His arms free, he wrapped them over his head and started rocking like a scared child. "It's too much," he whispered. "Please shut up. All of you, just stop talking."

Bella stared at him, perplexed. Her instinct had been to protect this man, but his face and voice were unfamiliar. "I know you," she said to him. "Your name is Edward." He didn't look up.

Alice took a hesitant step forward. "Jasper, could you work your magic here? I think a little focus would work wonders for this situation."

Carlisle looked between the two newborns, clearly torn between horror and fascination. "It's been years since I've seen a newborn. My last was Esme," Esme grimaced, "and the worst she ever did was smash my study to pieces. Can you... can you remember who you are?"

Slowly, as if they were emerging from a fog, Bella and Edward came back to themselves. After an hour of gentle reminding and a heavy dose of concentration and lethargy from Jasper, their confusion dissipated as their personalities and lives, as well as the events leading up to their change, became clearer.

The voices in Edward's head, however, were there to stay. "I'm hearing...your thoughts?" he asked, nonplussed.

"Eleazar said you were telepathic. Did you think he was kidding?" Alice teased. He screwed up his face in annoyance.

"It's almost hard to listen to you when you speak, the thoughts in this room are so loud." He winced and tilted his head to the side, as if he could empty the errant thoughts out through his ear. "And what are you even thinking about right now?" he demanded, as another string of nonsense words flew through her head.

"Beowulf in the original text," she said innocently. Before he could ask why, she changed the subject. "Tell me, Edward. Whose voices do you hear in your mind, right now?"

He closed his eyes and listened. "You and your Beowulf. Jasper is thinking about killing newborns; thanks for that, by the way. Carlisle is worried about Esme's arm. And Esme feels guilty for provoking Bella." He opened his eyes again and looked back to Alice, suddenly grasping the one absence in his head. "Why don't I hear Bella?"

He turned to her, glaring, and she glared back just as fiercely. After the initial shock of transformation, each had been frightened and confused by the automatic protective instinct that surged at the other's distress. Since then, they had been sitting on opposite sides of the room refusing to acknowledge one another like a pair of petulant children.

"Maybe your all-powerful gift is malfunctioning," Bella sniped. "You should ask for a refund."

"And maybe I'm not the one with malfunction," he shot back.

"All right, children, that's quite enough," Carlisle said, chuckling from the corner where he was examining Esme. "A complete mental shield? Eleazar was right, this will be interesting."

"Somebody better tell me what's going on right now!" Bella demanded, standing up and moving back into the room where Alice, Carlisle, and Esme sat scattered about.

"Why don't we go for a hunt," Esme suggested. She rubbed absently at her shoulder, "before we have another hostage situation on our hands. I'm sure you two have noticed the... ah, the burning... hasn't stopped completely? You must be in pain, and that's probably not helping things."

"Of course, how stupid of us," Carlisle said immediately. "Alice, is there game nearby?"

"Nothing terribly appetizing, but you should be able to pick up some deer in the scrub woods out back. That will hold them for a while."

Jasper grimaced and shook his head. "Why don't you just feed them rodents and get it over with?"

"We're not going to start calling attention to ourselves now," Alice said gently. "And besides, a condition of Carlisle's help, and most likely of Rosalie's, is that the newborns be raised vegetarian, at least for a short period of time."

Edward looked from Alice to Jasper. "No thanks. I don't want to eat something that tastes like sour milk."

"Who said anything about sour milk?" asked Bella. "What, do you want to eat people? Sicko."

"He's thinking about how disgusting it is," Edward accused, pointing at Jasper. "And we're vampires now, right? Vampires eat people. They're our natural food source. Plus they smell delicious."

"You can smell that just from my thoughts?" Jasper asked, grudgingly impressed.

"Okay, okay," Alice interrupted. "You," she pointed at Jasper, "stop thinking unhelpful thoughts. You," she pointed to Edward and Bella, "don't have a choice in the matter. We're going hunting, you're going to pull down some deer, and you're going to be happy about it."

After a few more fruitless arguments from Edward and Jasper, the whole group headed outdoors.

"We don't need babysitters," Edward grumbled.

"You might," Alice said sternly. "There's safety in numbers."

"All I'm saying is that this would be a lot easier if all of you weren't thinking about the best way to incapacitate the two of us if a human wandered by."

Bella, who was running between Carlisle and Esme, looked over at him and frowned. "Will you stop doing that already?"

"Stop doing what?"

"Being such a giant know-it-all."

"What was that about not needing babysitters?" Jasper muttered.

"Stop," Carlisle interrupted, pulling up sharp. "Do you smell that?"

Bella wrinkled her nose, leaning into the soft, westerly breeze. "You'll have to be specific. I smell a lot of things."

"Close your eyes," Esme said. "It always helped me get my bearings. There are so many new sights and sounds and smells, sometimes removing one sense from the equation is the best thing."

After giving her a dubious glance, Bella obeyed. Her nostrils flared as an easterly breeze hit her face. The wind should have been cool, but it barely registered with Bella. "Everything smells so green," she said, opening her eyes again with a small smile. "What am I smelling for?"

"Concentrate," Carlisle said gently. "To the southeast."

Bella's eyes widened. "I think I smell it! It's kind of rich and tangy, like...Greek food?"

Jasper snorted, but Alice smiled brightly. "That's it, you got it. Although I think you'll change your analogy the next time you smell Greek. Edward?"

He rolled his eyes and took off running, following the scent without further instruction. The others reacted immediately, following him down a gully and through a stand of evergreens. Bella was right behind him, enjoying the luxury of cursing him out in her mind unheard, while the other four struggled to keep pace with the newborns.

"He _is _a bit of a show-off, isn't he?" Carlisle said casually, earning a quick, flashing grin from Edward right before he dove over the crest of a small hillock. His body slammed into a mule deer, sending both of them crashing to the ground, scattering the other three deer in the small clearing. Bella caught one of the runners before it could get too far, and for a moment the trees echoed with the sounds of tearing flesh and gasping grunts and growls.

When Bella finished, she glanced up at where Edward lay, worrying the neck of his deer savagely. Blood was spattered on his formerly clean gray t-shirt, and on his nose and chin. His eyes flashed as he drank the last of the blood the animal had to offer, and when the afternoon sun caught on his still-crimson irises, Bella couldn't help but appreciate the feral beauty she saw there.

He dropped his deer and wiped the back of his hand across his face, and this time her eyes lingered on his body. He moved with an easy sort of grace; she was certain it was because of his newly acquired immortal status, because she could not recall ever noticing it before.

It didn't take him long to notice her staring. "You going to finish that?" he joked, pointing to her mule deer. She dropped it unceremoniously, embarrassed to be caught looking at him and not happy about the raw attraction she had just experienced.

"It's empty. Don't bother." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and closed her eyes again. "I've got dibs on whatever that is," she said, chasing off into the woods once more.

"Oh, nice catch," said Alice appreciatively, following her through the trees. "Mountain lion."

Edward put on an extra burst of speed, catching up with Bella just in time to see her tumble from a branch, locked in a cougar's dying embrace. She landed on her back, arms in a stranglehold around the cat, jaws locked on its jugular. Her hair tangled with the leaves on the forest floor, bringing out red and gold hues that flashed against a chestnut background.

The big cat's claws raked against her chest, not leaving a scratch on her marble skin, but shredding her clothing like cheesecloth. It died with one last feeble roar, and she rolled over, depositing it on the ground and brushing herself off. Patches of smooth, white skin flashed at Edward through the holes in her shirt. The sight sent a disorienting wave of lust through him, and he stopped in his tracks, momentarily stunned.

From a distance, Alice and Jasper stood watching them, carrying on a whispered conversation.

"Those are two seriously confused newborns," he said with a chuckle. "They don't know whether to rip each other's clothes off or fight to the death. Or both."

"Young love," she laughed.

Edward caught the end of her thoughts as he emerged from his post-hunting haze, linked with the image of himself and Bella, cuddled together and laughing. He froze, surprised, and the sudden lack of movement caught Bella's attention. For a moment they only stared at each other, two pairs of wide red eyes searching for answers. Then a twig snapped somewhere in the distance, and he turned and ran, leaving her standing stock still in the forest.

Alice sighed and shook her head. "Take Carlisle and follow him. Esme and I will stay with Bella. Remember, try to keep your thoughts clear of anything that might upset him, and try not to give him too much information about what happens next. We need to handle this carefully."

He kissed her gently and smiled. "Aye aye, General."

"You're such a good soldier, Major Whitlock," she teased. "It's no wonder they promoted you so young."

"If all my commanding officers had been as beautiful as you, I'm sure I would have made top rank before too much longer." He squeezed her hand and she laughed, marveling again that he had come into her life with such perfect timing. He turned and ran after Edward, blonde hair fluttering behind him, long and a bit unkempt by modern standards, but perfect for a young man of the 1860s.

She watched him run until he disappeared, then sighed and turned to Bella, who waited impatiently next to the carcass of the mountain lion.

"Ready for more?" Alice asked. "I bet we can get better kills than the boys and still make it back before they do. Jasper will slow them down, he's not great with tracking animals."

Esme laughed. "Yes, but they have Carlisle, and he's been living the vegetarian lifestyle for hundreds of years."

"And we have you," said Bella with a smile. Now that she had spent some time with Esme, she was embarrassed by her earlier behavior and anxious to make it up to the older vampire.

"Me? Good gracious, I'm newer to this life than Alice."

"Barely," Alice scoffed. "And you're older than I am physically, so I think it all still balances out to you being older."

"Immortality doesn't stop you from having a complex about age, huh?" Bella asked, looking between the two women in amusement. Esme rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Some of us more than others," Alice said, her eyes twinkling. "You should hear some of the older ones argue. Even Carlisle is small potatoes compared to some, and they wear their age like a badge of pride."

"I can't imagine being alive for that long," Bella said. "Think of all the things that have happened since Carlisle was born. World Wars, civil wars, depressions, epidemics..."

"Scientific and technological advancements, vaccines, the end of apartheid and the feminist revolution," Alice interrupted. "There are good things about a long life. It puts things in perspective. History is full of mankind's mistakes, but everything occurs in balance. Humans have a habit of redeeming themselves every time."

"What do you think we'll see happen in the next hundred years?" Bella asked.

"Right now, I'm just hoping we don't see an end to humanity," Alice said gently. The smile slid from Bella's face, and for a moment, the three women stood in silent contemplation.

Alice's eyes clouded over for a moment, and then she shook her head absently. "On that note," she said, breaking the silence, "we'd better get going. The boys are on the track of a couple of bears, and we definitely won't beat them back at this rate." She smiled brightly, content to let her companions believe that her vision had been about hunting and foot races.

As the three took off into the woods, Bella leading, Alice fought back a shiver. Something had changed. She wasn't sure why, but after months of searching and probing, she had finally been gifted with a vision of the leaders of the Collective. Unfortunately, it wasn't good news.

Aro, Caius, and Marcus now knew about Bella, and they suspected Alice's involvement. Aro had never forgotten about her; before destroying her creator, Carlo, Aro had touched him, learning of Alice's existence and of her gift of second sight. Eleazar had told her early on that Aro still cherished the hope that she would be found, one day. He had every intention of arguing with Caius that she should be allowed to live and serve, despite her illegal status. However, Caius was just as resolved that she should be destroyed. In the end, Alice knew her life would be forfeit. She had flouted the laws for too long to overcome Caius's demands that justice be done.

Now, the three Volturi masters were planning their attack. They had heard the rumblings of revolution and were determined to squash it before it had the chance to grow. As yet, they weren't sure where the fledgling revolutionaries were hiding, but it was only a matter of time.

Time. Time was short.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for all your reviews and comments. Thank you to BittenBee, opheliabreathes, and katinki01. Your thoughts are always welcome.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns sparkley vampires. Turns out I have a lot of junk.**

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><p><strong>Last time: Bella and Edward were changed, and the newborns went on their first hunting trip. Alice had a vision of the Collective that doesn't bode well for our heroes.<strong>

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><p>Day changed to night and the purple velvet sky lightened and turned pink with the dawn, but the vampires sheltered in the out-of-the-way house just outside of town didn't notice. For Bella and Edward, the revelation that they would never sleep, never tire, never change was off-putting. Their conversation with Alice, Jasper, and Eleazar about the challenges and benefits of immortality had not adequately prepared them for the reality of their new lives.<p>

Five days after their change, in the small hours of the morning, Bella started laughing hysterically. Edward descended from the study, where he'd been blasting Mozart to try to drown out the voices in his head, to investigate.

With anyone else, he would have known the reason for the laughter immediately, but Bella's mind still posed a puzzle. She was an enigma to him, and for some reason he couldn't resist probing every mystery she presented for answers. His near-constant attention put Bella on edge, and the air between them was often blue with curses and insults.

"What's funny?" He looked between the hysterical girl and Alice, who sat across the room, staring. Alice shrugged.

"I just realized," Bella gasped, catching an unnecessary breath, "that this has got to be the longest day _ever_."

Alice snorted, and Edward raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure she can't take a nap?" he asked Alice. "She seems a little sleep deprived."

"Eternity is enough to make anyone a little hysterical," she reasoned. "Let her laugh."

"_I'm_ not hysterical," he said, looking at Bella incredulously. "And I've got everyone's _thoughts_ floating around in my head."

Bella sobered, and the smile slipped from her lips. "Excuse me. We can't all be as perfect as Edward Masen, vampire prodigy."

Carlisle had begun exploring their talents almost immediately following their first hunt, and Bella had been frustrated to discover that her "shield," as they had taken to calling it, was difficult for her to even sense, and impossible for her to manipulate. Meanwhile, Edward's talent took no effort on his part, and he seemed to adjust to it fairly quickly. She resented his easy mastery of their new life as well, and everything from his speed and grace to the sound of his beautiful new voice irritated her. He didn't even make a mess while hunting anymore, and she still ruined her clothes with every kill.

Bella bolted from the house, before he could respond to this new barb. Alice put a hand on his arm to restrain him. "Let me," she said gently. "This won't end well if you try to talk to her again."

She followed Bella, leaving Edward with nothing but the trailing edge of her thoughts as she ran: a slow, soulful song with lyrics in yet another foreign language. After several days of hearing nothing but songs and epic poems in her head, he was beginning to suspect that she did it for the sole purpose of blocking him. It was almost as annoying as Bella's radio silence.

_Women are still women, even if they're vampires_. Carlisle had come in from a brief hunting trip and watched the confrontation between Edward and Bella from a distance. Edward caught flashes of him with Esme, presenting flowers to his mate with a regretful face as she stared him down dourly.

"What did you do?" Edward asked.

_Got carried away at work. I was at the hospital for a week straight before I made it home._ Edward whistled, and Carlisle winced. _Not my finest hour. _In his mind, he surveyed the wreckage of his study. Wallpaper hung in shreds, picture frames lay shattered on the floor, and books were scattered across every available surface. She had even demolished the bookshelves.

"You left her alone when she was a newborn?" Edward said, remembering Carlisle's comment from days before about Esme destroying his study once. "Wasn't that dangerous?"

"She was a year old," Carlisle explained, thinking back to a smallish log cabin on the edge of a wooded area, "and we lived in a rather isolated location. She wasn't a danger to anyone. Except for me, apparently."

"Somehow I don't think Bella would accept flowers from me," Edward said. As he said it, an odd sort of twinge echoed in his chest. He catalogued the feeling carefully, as he had every new sensation he had experienced in the last five days. It was a hollow sort of pain, like the reverberation of a drum pounding in an empty room. Regret? The feeling was foreign, much like his sudden, unexplainable urge to protect her when he saw her in pain.

He left Carlisle and went in search of Jasper, who he found in the dining room, any empty room with neither table nor chairs. Instead, the floor was covered in maps that Jasper had ripped from Alice's atlas. He traced highways with his forefinger and studied the distribution of towns and cities between Lake Forest and a small, red dot somewhere in southern Missouri.

"Spit it out," Jasper said, not looking up.

Edward sat down on the floor next to where Jasper crouched, more for something to do than because he needed to. "Planning our road trip?"

"More like off-road. We can't go anywhere near human populations with you two in tow, which means avoiding roads, towns, subdivisions, highways..."

Edward stared at the map with a furrowed brow. "How is that even possible?"

"Illinois is mostly farmers' fields. Once we get into Missouri we should be able to keep to the woods until we get to Emmett and Rosalie. It won't be easy, but between Alice and myself I think we can keep things under control."

"You know that's really disturbing, right?"

Jasper looked up, momentarily thrown. "Huh?"

"When you say things like that and then imagine ripping Bella or me to pieces." Jasper flinched slightly, and Alice's face swam in his mind. Edward nodded slowly. "I understand. You would do anything to protect her."

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence, during which Jasper's thoughts strayed even further Alice-wards. Edward cleared his throat and stood back up.

"I think I'll go find Carlisle and see if he wants to go out for a bit. A good run would clear my head nicely before we leave tomorrow."

Jasper barely nodded, his thoughts snapping back to the task at hand as Edward departed.

Bella managed to avoid Edward until the group assembled the next evening, although she was only successful because he was just as anxious to avoid her. There was a crackling, unsettling energy that surged between them whenever they were in the same room. Bella interpreted the energy as annoyance and frustration. Edward, on the other hand, felt like a magnet, being tugged along full force until he slammed into an unyielding wall. At first, he assumed the wall was her shield, but he was slowly beginning to suspect it wasn't just her silence—it was everything about her. The fact that she couldn't stand him only made matters worse.

"Now, everyone remembers the rules," Alice said, addressing the small group of vampires on the porch of the Lake Forest house. They were packed for light travel—backpacks, windbreakers for show, and comfortable, sturdy clothing. "We play follow the leader and everything should go fine, barring any unforeseen snap decisions. Carlisle and I will head the group; no one gets to go faster than the leader. Esme, you're in the middle with Edward and Bella."

"Babysitting," Bella muttered. Edward fought to keep a straight face, but Alice just ignored her.

"And Jasper will be bringing up the rear. No one gets to go slower than the caboose." She winked at Jasper, who scowled.

"I'll show you caboose," he threatened.

"Can we just get on the road?" Bella interrupted impatiently. "We've all got perfect memories. It's not like we need to go over the plan so we'll _remember _it better."

"Just so," Alice said with a shrug. "Perfect memories or not, newborns are notoriously easy to distract. Keep your head in the game." With that, she sprang lightly off the porch and sprinted down the lane, Carlisle close behind her.

"Snotty little know-it-all," Edward said with a grin, following them up the lane.

"Oh, that's rich," Bella snarled, keeping pace with him. "Coming from the Know-It-All In Chief."

"Is that an official title? Because I like it." He smiled winningly, but Bella was unmoved. Her scowl deepened and she looked away, seeming to put all her focus on Alice's back.

Even at vampire speed, the cross-country trip would take all night, and after running in silence for an hour, Bella gave up scowling in silence. Cornfields were just as boring through her newly enhanced eyes as they were when she was human.

"Tell me about Emmett and Rose," she said to no one in particular. Alice glanced back, meeting her eyes for a moment before looking to Esme.

"Emmett is a good soul," Alice said slowly. "So is Rose, but she's a hard one to win over. I have no doubt that eventually we'll have her full support."

Hearing the "but" behind her words, Bella sighed. "Eventually, huh? What about when we first get there?"

"There are a few things you need to know to really understand Rose," Esme put in, looking between Alice, who had slowed down somewhat, and Bella.

Edward, who was listening to Esme and Alice's thoughts in addition to their words, gasped, and then frowned. "God, that's terrible. That poor girl."

"What? What's terrible?" Bella demanded.

"Like most of us, Rosalie didn't have much of a choice in how or when she was changed," Esme began, shaking her head at Edward, who looked as if he was about to interrupt. "In 1933, Rosalie Hale was a beautiful young woman at the center of the social scene in Rochester, New York. She was the belle of every ball, and very sought after. Unfortunately, she caught the eye of a passing nomad."

Edward grimaced. "He just took her? And left her like that?"

"You're getting ahead of the story," Alice chastised. "Royce took her, yes. Plucked her off the street one late night in April. After torturing her and starving her for several days, he changed her; he told her she would be his mate. Later she found out there was a huge manhunt for her. Her family offered a large reward to anyone who could give them news, good or bad. Of course, no one ever knew what really happened to her."

"When Rose found out what she had become, she sank into a deep depression," Esme said quietly. "She wouldn't eat. Royce held her captive for nearly a year, occasionally raping her and force feeding her human blood when she became too weak to resist him."

"She was a newborn, though," Bella protested. "She was stronger than him! Why didn't she fight back?"

"Rose wasn't mentally equipped for life as a vampire," Alice explained. "Something inside of her just... broke. She may have been physically stronger, but Royce was manipulative and cruel. Even the strongest man can be a prisoner of his own mind. Terror and despair are powerful weapons."

"So how did she escape? And how do you know her?" Bella glanced over to Edward, who had a look of intense concentration on his face. She grimaced, annoyed that he was getting a far more complete version of events through his mental eavesdropping.

"After about a year, Royce grew tired of caring for a catatonic vampire. One day, he abandoned her in the woods. That's where Carlisle and I found her," Esme said. "We nursed her back to health and showed her our way of life. She never drank from another human."

"Well, that's not entirely true," Carlisle said, calling back over his shoulder to join the conversation. "She tasted a bit of Emmett's blood, if you'll recall."

"A marginal amount, and not on purpose," Esme said kindly.

"I was wondering when Emmett was going to make an appearance in this story," Bella said. "Did Rose change him?"

"No," Carlisle said, looking ahead again. "I did."

"You did?"

"That was awfully hypocritical of her," Edward said with a frown.

"Don't judge her too harshly," Alice said. "In her position, you might have done the same."

"Done what?" Bella asked.

"When Rose found Emmett in the woods, he was dying from a bear attack. She looked at him and just knew."

"Knew _what_?" The exasperation was clear in Bella's voice.

"That he was her true mate," Esme said simply. "It's often very obvious when it happens. The strength of the attraction is just too much for us to resist. It isn't really a choice. She carried him more than one hundred miles to where she knew Carlisle and I still lived. She's felt guilty about that day ever since. They left us almost immediately for life on their own, though we still see them from time to time."

"Was Emmett very upset?" Bella asked, growing confused as Alice, Esme, and Carlisle broke out into laughter.

"Emmett is what you call a natural," Carlisle said with a chuckle. "Not remotely phased by the change, at least not once the pain went away. He took to immortality like a duck to water and never looked back once."

"He doesn't think of it like she does," Alice said with a sigh. "In her mind, she's no better than Royce, plucking a helpless victim from the world for her own benefit."

"But they're really mated? He loves her?" Edward asked.

"Yes," Esme said firmly. "But to Rosalie, that fact is irrelevant."

"She sounds stubborn," Bella commented.

"Pot, pot, kettle, kettle," Edward muttered under his breath. She heard, of course, and glared at him.

The next several hours of the trip passed quietly.

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><p><strong>AN: I won't give you any excuses. Basically, life got a little crazy, as it sometimes does, and fic took a hit. Hope you like the update, and that some of you are still hanging in there, despite my horrible lack of updates. Thanks for reading.<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: SM owns sparkley vamps. I have a pretty sweet futon.**

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><p>The group had made good time tirelessly running straight through the night, breaking out of the forest of white oak and shortleaf pine sometime around dawn. The sudden shift of light was beautiful, even to vampire eyes. Orange and red tendrils of dawn streaked across the sky, back-lighting sleepy purple mountains. Across the clearing, an unremarkable log cabin sat alone, surrounded by trees on one side and flanked by a small lake on the other.<p>

"There it is," Alice said, sighing happily.

When they were halfway across the clearing, she stuck out her arm, indicating the group should stop. "Jasper, you stay here with Bella and Edward. Carlisle and Esme and I will go and—"

"Well, if it isn't Miss Alice and her merry band of lawbreakers! You picked up new recruits since the last time we saw you." A man's voice rang out from the direction of the log cabin, full and resonant, like a cello in an empty concert hall.

"Never mind," Alice laughed.

A huge, lumbering man emerged from the cabin. Dark curls fell casually over a high forehead, golden eyes flashing mischievously under thick black brows.

"Rose is out hunting, but she should be back in the next hour," the man continued, reaching them in a few short seconds. He folded Carlisle into a crushing embrace, then did the same to Esme. "You brought the good doctor and his wife! She'll be happy to see you both."

When he turned to where Jasper stood with Bella and Edward, he seemed to really notice them for the first time. His eyes flicked from Jasper's scarred face to Bella and Edward's bright scarlet eyes. He let out a low whistle.

"That's a different story, isn't it? Newborns, Alice? Newly minted, too, by the looks of 'em. What were you thinking, bringing them here? Rose will have a fit." He smiled as he spoke, and Bella thought it gave his words an odd duality. Was he being sincere? Joham's smiling face echoed in her mind. Despite the fact that this man—surely this must be Emmett—was nothing like her former captor, she was having difficulty distinguishing between the two. Edward, on the other hand, had no such problems.

"But you're going to help us anyway," he said confidently. Even through the haze of mental voices in his head, Edward could read Emmett's intentions perfectly. There was no artifice, no hidden agenda. "Because you promised Alice you would, and because Rose respects Carlisle."

Emmett blinked slowly, purposefully, and then smiled lazily. "You took the words right out of my mouth, boy."

"Cut the innocent farmhand routine," Jasper snapped, exasperated by the pace of the conversation. "We're on a tight schedule, and I have to get these two started on combat training as soon as possible. Alice said you know the gist of the situation, but before you commit, we need to brief you on where things stand. Then, if you and your mate are still ready to support us, we can get started."

Esme and Carlisle stared at Jasper in shock, and the smile slid from Emmett's face for just a moment. Then he burst into a big, booming laugh.

"You're an ornery sumbitch, ain't ya?" He turned back to Alice and arched an eyebrow. "But you're with Alice, so I guess you must be good people. Come on in, we'll wait for Rosie and get to know each other." Jasper looked from Emmett to the cabin dubiously, not moving until Alice clucked her tongue and told him to stop being a tactician for one second and trust her.

Inside, the cabin was sparsely decorated. Low bookcases separated a big, four poster bed from the central living area. A bear skin rug was spread out in front of a cold fireplace, and a rough, handmade table sat near the room's only window.

Esme exclaimed over the quaint simplicity of it all, but Emmett just shrugged. "When you can't feel cold or heat, and don't need to eat, sleep, or piss, you can pretty much cut out all that modern convenience bullshit. It's not much, but it's our home." He turned to Jasper and sighed. "So, you gonna brief me or whatever the hell you called it? Not that it matters. We promised Alice she'd have all the help with the Collective that we could give when the time came. Obviously, something's happened. Out with it."

Jasper stared at him, his expression grim.

"Speechless?" Emmett teased. "I have that effect on people."

"We'll cut to the chase," Alice cut in. "My vision, the one I first came to Carlisle about, well…" She hesitated, but he nodded, his ever-present smile fading.

"I remember, Alice. Hard to forget when someone tells you you're going to help stage a coup against the most powerful coven in the world. Go on."

Alice took a deep, unnecessary breath.

"It's nearly time. And from what I've been able to see, the battleground is somewhere in this immediate area. Reinforcements will be trickling in over the next two weeks. I can't get an exact reading on the time of the confrontation, but we're probably looking at less than a month."

"You're one inconvenient weather vane, Miss Alice," Emmett said grimly. "What do you need from us?"

"Permission to settle in until the fight. Your hospitality and patience. And a little help in training up these two wouldn't go amiss," Alice said, jerking her head toward Edward and Bella.

"And where do they come in?" Emmett asked, curiosity tingeing his tone. "Not that anyone in this room has been shy about breaking the registration laws before, but shoving a new violation under the Collective's nose when they're already hell-bent on destroying us seems a little... crazy."

"Bella and Edward are key forces in our fight, as long as we can get them trained fast enough," Carlisle said. "They both have gifts, much like Alice's sight."

"Imagine that," Emmett said, eying the two of them more carefully now. "What kind of gifts?"

"Edward can hear your thoughts, and Bella has a defensive shield that we're still experimenting with. We haven't gotten a good idea on the limits of her abilities yet, but if Alice is right—"

"And when am I wrong, really?" she interjected.

"—then her abilities are substantial," Carlisle finished, shaking his head and smiling. Bella scowled, as she did whenever anyone in the group started talking about her 'substantial abilities.' It made her recent failures to even _sense_ her shield sting even more.

"And did you pick these two up as is?" Emmett asked, noting Bella's expression with interest. "Or are you responsible for the little monsters?"

"They were changed about a week ago," Alice said carefully. "Eyes wide open. They knew what they were getting into, and they agreed to help us."

"Come on, Alice," a new voice said harshly. "Eyes wide open? You can't believe that anyone can be truly prepared for this life."

A blonde Amazon stood framed in the doorway, sunlight turning her hair to spun gold. She was nearly as tall as Emmett and dressed simply in jeans and a fitted t-shirt. But her casual clothing did nothing to diminish the refined curve of her brow, or the perfect pout to her lips. Bella had never seen anyone so beautiful, or so terrifying.

She had come upon the cabin too quickly—Edward had not had the chance to process the new presence before she was there, throwing off the delicate balance he had created in his head.

For Edward, the arrival of the stranger brought a torrent of new words and vitriol. Her thoughts were twisted and angry, several layers deep and torn in different directions. She was angry with her mate, and furious about finding the visitors in her home. At odds with her rage was a deep respect for Carlisle and Alice, and outright indignation on behalf of Edward and Bella. The whole tangled mess made him want to cover his ears and bury his head between his knees.

"You must be Rosalie," he choked out, reeling from the door with wide eyes. Bella, seeing the stupefied look on his face, assumed his reaction was to Rosalie's obvious beauty. Her mood blackened further, sinking to such a level which alarmed Jasper. The wave of calm he sent out into the room, however, had little effect.

"I am," she answered stiffly, focusing her glare on Edward. As her angry eyes appraised him, a new line of thought rose to the surface. In her mind, Rosalie pictured the two of them kissing, only it wasn't like any kissing Edward had ever participated in before. Teeth gnashed and hands tore at flesh and clothing, while a fierce kind of disdain that only _this _woman could be capable of pervaded the scene. It wasn't clear which one of them was the aggressor in her imagined scenario, but it was clear that the whole idea disgusted and upset her.

_I know that look. Hungry eyes. He wants me, wants sex, wants..._

"I really don't," Edward interrupted, squeezing his eyes shut and swallowing against imagined bile. "Please, I'd rather you stopped that line of thought."

Her eyes flew open wide, and she looked frantically from Edward to Alice. Then, slowly, carefully, she stepped inside the house, closed the door of the cabin behind her and crossed her arms. "I think you all have some explaining to do."

||x||

Once she had been brought up to speed on the situation and its urgency, Rosalie's hostility mellowed significantly. After a few cautious conversations, she bonded with Bella, especially after hearing of her kidnapping and Joham's plans. In fact, Rosalie became fiercely protective of the younger vampire, stepping in on Bella's behalf when training with Jasper became too brutal or Carlisle's questions about her shield became too endless. She was perhaps more in tune to Bella's frustrations than Bella herself, and on one or two occasions privately apologized for being over-protective.

"It's just that I see you with them, and it worries me," Rosalie said quietly, not meeting Bella's eyes. "The pressure they put on you, all that stress and the constant pushing. It makes me—" She feel silent, the conflict clear on her face.

"I know, Rosalie," Bella said, gently placing a hand over the beautiful vampires tightened fist. "But it's not like that. And as much as I hate all this…I have to do it."

Rosalie nodded, eyes closed.

"But if it makes you feel better to give the guys hell for me," Bella added with a sly smile. "I'm not opposed to the idea."

And thus an alliance was born.

Rosalie remained icy and suspicious toward Edward and Jasper. She found Edward's mind reading unsettling (agreeing loudly with Bella that he was a 'real know-it-all') and disliked the mood-altering waves Jasper sent out as a way of resolving conflict. Eventually, the two men learned to stay out of her way.

"Pricklier than a cactus," Jasper muttered to Edward. Rosalie had thrown them out of the cabin because they were having a one-sided conversation, the kind that grated on Bella's nerves.

Edward smiled at the colloquialism. "Where are you from, Jasper? You know, before."

Jasper paused, carefully clearing his mind. He had tried adopting Alice's technique of reciting songs and poetry, but in the end found it was too much work. Instead, Jasper reverted to zen meditation rituals to clear his mind and keep Edward's prying 'ears' at bay.

"Texas."

"How old were you?"

A flicker ran through Jasper's white wall of static, just for a moment. Edward saw men in uniforms on horseback, civilians carrying all their possessions on their backs, and a still frame of a young man hugging his mother goodbye.

"I was twenty years old in 1863, when I was turned. Not much younger than you, although I thought I was just as savvy in the ways of the world as you do, I reckon."

The two walked aimlessly, wandering away from the cabin and up toward a larger clearing where Alice had taken to sitting, waiting for her next vision.

"I was a major in the Confederate Army. I was a damn fool, though at the time I thought I was a patriot. It was all over in an instant, and then I was fighting a different kind of war. I was ambushed by three female vampires while assisting with the evacuation of Galveston. I thought they were lost civilians. I was wrong. Turns out they were soldiers, too."

Eleazar had briefly explained the southern wars to Edward before he was changed, and though the information was fuzzy, he thought he understood the sheer horror that Jasper must have experienced. Newborns fighting each other under the command of older, more experienced vampire commanders, battling for every square foot of human-occupied territory.

"Is that where you got those scars?" he asked timidly. Jasper's eyebrows drew together, and the small crescent shapes puckered around the corners of his eyes.

"I fought my way up through the ranks, just like I had as a human," Jasper said slowly. The small crescent shapes puckered around the corners of his eyes. "Lots of smaller dust-ups, but I pulled my weight when we went into battle against another vampire army as well. And with my special talent, I was a natural leader. Eventually, I learned how to not only manipulate others into following me, but I could get them to stop in the face of my advancing infantry." He paused, drew a deep breath, and continued. "They would stop dead in their tracks and wait to be torn to pieces. Naturally, I was quite an asset to my mistress, the one who changed me."

"Was she like Alice?" Edward asked, unsure of what he was really asking. He knew from their thoughts and actions that Jasper and Alice were mated, though they had only known each other for a few months, at most. Was this mistress also Jasper's mate? Or was she just another superior officer?

"She was nothing like Alice." Jasper's voice was harsh across the quiet of the surrounding trees. "Maria was my general, my liege lord, and my queen. What she commanded, I carried out. Until one day, I couldn't."

"Why not?" Edward pressed. There was another flicker, and this time Edward glimpsed two vampires, both blonde, a male and female. They were a matching pair: one tall and lithe, the other short and thin. They clung to each other, scarlet eyes wide in fright, before they faded into the mist.

"Every gift comes with its consequences, Edward. You know that. You may know every thought that passes through someone's head, but you can't ever turn it off, and so you will never be alone again. I can manipulate others to love, hate, despair, or kill, but I must also feel it as they do, so that the very emotion I inspire echoes through me, doubled in on itself."

Again he paused, staring downward as his feet took steady, deliberate steps. The enormity of what he was admitting settled on Edward. "With every death, I felt the terror and hopelessness of my victims—human and vampire. One can only take so much."

Edward wanted to press for more, for information on the blonde vampires in Jasper's memories, but something stopped him from acting on his curiosity. Perhaps it was the stoop in Jasper's shoulders, or the way his eyes suddenly showed his age, making him look older and wearier than Edward had ever seen him.

When they reached the field where Alice sat, as usual, on a large flagstone near the edge of the woods. She wasn't alone.

"Concentrate, Bella," Carlisle encouraged. "You really need to focus. Think of your shield like an article of clothing, like a cape or a hat."

"This is so stupid," Bella grumbled, gritting her teeth and screwing up her face, concentrating as hard as she could. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing right now."

"If you can feel your shield take some kind of corporeal form, you'll have a better sense of how to use it and what exactly it does."

"That's idiotic!" she yelled, stamping her foot. Edward chuckled. Her hair lay in wild, disheveled curls around her shoulders, and the pout on her lips reminded him of a much younger girl. She whirled around toward the sound, eyes blazing, hair fanning out behind her. "What are you laughing at?"

He put his hands up defensively, frustrated that he couldn't be sure whether she was about to attack him or merely growl from a distance. The thought sparked a sudden flash of inspiration.

"Would it help if you were focusing on someone else?" he asked, advancing slowly with his hands still raised.

"Like you, I suppose," she snarled, baring her teeth at him.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help. You think I don't know what its like to have Carlisle pushing you?" Her sneer faded, and she pressed her lips into a hard line.

"'Concentrate, Edward,'" he mimicked, throwing a frustrated glance toward Carlisle. "'Stretch your mind. Jasper is only three miles away. Can't you pick up some whisper of a thought? Really push your limits, son.'"

Alice snickered, and Carlisle smiled apologetically.

Bella sighed and slumped over, mentally exhausted, before collapsing onto her knees in the soft dirt. "Yeah, that sounds familiar. Okay, what's your suggestion? It can't be more harebrained than 'pretend it's a hat.'"

This time Jasper laughed, and amusement blew like a soft breeze through the field, lightening the tension. Bella's resentment dispersed at the sound, and the hint of a smile threatened the corner of her mouth.

"You're trying to use a shield right?" Edward asked. She rolled her eyes. "Okay, so maybe it would help to have some_one_ to shield from some_thing_."

"You're gonna have to be more specific," Bella said, sighing heavily.

"What if you tried to shield someone, say Carlisle, from me? Try to block my telepathy."

Bella didn't say anything, so he tried again. "It's what you're supposed to be doing in the battle, isn't it?" He turned to Alice for support. "Well, isn't it?"

"He's right, Bella," she said. It was an idea they hadn't tried yet, and there was no telling where it might lead. More than anything, Alice knew that Bella and Edward had to work together. Maybe having a common goal would help them bond _and_ hurry Bella's progress. "This is the kind of thing that could give you a breakthrough."

With another giant sigh, Bella relented. "Who am I to bet against a psychic?"

Edward positioned himself between Bella and Carlisle, doing his best to appear threatening and menacing. "All right, now block me."

Bella's eyebrows pulled up and in, and her eyes narrowed, but nothing happened.

"Well?" she spat through clenched teeth. "Anything?"

"Nope," he said, hunching into a defensive crouch. She mirrored his actions unconsciously. "Try again."

Hours later, the only palpable difference Bella noticed was a tingling on the edge of her consciousness, like the numb, yet almost-painful sensations of pins and needles after a limb has fallen asleep. Edward thought he could detect a quiet ringing in his ears, but he couldn't be certain whether it was Bella's efforts or merely his improved vampire hearing picking up on some ultra high frequency.

"This is ridiculous," she fumed, opening her eyes after Edward called out, yet again, 'Not yet.'

"You're getting somewhere," Alice said with a smile. "Just give it some time."

"Time," Bella muttered. "Right." She stared at Edward, still crouched in front of her. He was entirely focused on her; his eyes bored into her face. Something essential had shifted in their relationship—they were allies now, albeit uncomfortable ones. He wanted to help her. On some level, it was the same annoying know-it-all behavior that she had despised from the very beginning of their relationship. But on the other hand… he was trying to help. He didn't have an ulterior motive, and he wasn't lording her weaknesses and failures over her. He was motivated by the same worries and fears that Alice was, probably because every thought that passed through Alice's brain also passed through his.

And that thought pulled her up short. He wasn't helping her out of some altruistic desire to do good. This was war, and Bella could be the weak link in the chain that cost them their lives, and cost the world so much more. He was helping her because he didn't have a choice. If Bella failed, they all did, as Alice so often reminded her. In that moment, she missed the human capacity to vomit. She settled for heaving a deep sigh.

"Okay, Edward," she said. "Let's take it from the top."

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><p><strong>AN: A little thawing? Maybe? I know Bella is bugging the shit out of some of you, but um...maybe this isn't your story then. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me, and thanks for all your lovely reviews! Thanks, too, to bittenbee, hmonster4, opheliabreathes, and katinki01!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight and those sparkly vampires. I own very little.**

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><p>Thousands of miles away from where Alice's small renegade army was preparing for the fight of their lives, within the walled streets of a charming Italian city, in a well-lit room at the top of a tall tower, a different sort of fight was brewing.<p>

"You promised me at least twenty-five would be ready for our journey to America, Joham," a tall vampire with jet black hair said. His voice was deceptively light and calm; danger sparked behind his blood red eyes. "And now you tell me we will be lucky to have fifteen? What could have possibly changed in the short time since our last discussion?"

"There have been complications with their training, my Lord Aro," Joham said, sinking into a deep bow that was akin to an elegant cower. "Vanessa is refusing to advance some of them in their combat skills, and her reports have not been as promising as I believed they would be."

"My daughter is talented, but she requires a firm hand. The child needs to learn her place," Aro said, turning to peer out a westward facing window. Sunlight glinted off his face, sending rays of light dancing on the ceiling and walls. "She must realize she is not the supreme commander. If there is no respect for the chain of command, we'll be nothing more than savages, or common nomads. See to it that she receives the extra trainers she needs at the nursery. I _will _have twenty-five hybrids, and they will be ready to fight."

"Have you given any thought to the ones which are most valuable to you in a conflict?" Joham said diplomatically, sensing a temper tantrum coming and working to carefully avoid it. "Certainly, as their trainer, Vanessa will have to be on hand, which means she will insist we bring Nahuel as well. She has been rather stubborn on that point."

Aro waved his hand dismissively, still scowling. "Of course. You will need your assistant as well, I'm sure. Although the whelp is lucky that he was not destroyed for his role in letting a potential mother escape. If it wasn't for my daughter and their relationship, he would have been."

"He has learned his lesson, I assure you," Joham said. "After being separated from Vanessa since our return to Volterra, I doubt he will do anything to risk further punishment. The bond they share is _almost _as strong as that between vampire mates."

"And as for the others," he added, pausing for effect. "I will have the nursery set up for a demonstration tomorrow. You will come and witness their skills, I hope. As a sort of audition for induction to the guard?"

"Auditions," Aro mused. Joham relaxed infinitesimally at the upturn oinf his master's mood. "An amusing diversion, perhaps. But Joham, I assure you that this is much more than mere diversion for me. I have placed considerable faith in your efforts, and I will be most displeased if we do not achieve the desired results."

"We shall, my Lord, I assure you." Now that the danger had passed, Joham warmed to his topic. "You won't regret your visit to the nursery. You will have a chance to see the future in action, so to speak. There is something remarkable about watching them spar."

"Hm." Aro nodded absently. "The future. Is it wise to weaken the species this way, though? I worry about diluting the vampire genome."

Joham's eyes lit up. "On the contrary, the genome, as you say, is only strengthened by the addition of human DNA."

Aro, who has been drawn in by Joham's vision from the beginning, could almost taste the future they were building. Together. The two mad vampires stared at each other, fanatical fervor reflecting in one another's eyes.

"All the elements of vampire physiology that perfect the species, plus a functioning metabolism able to adapt to either human or vampire diets. This new hybrid species has endless possibilities. Have you given any thought to my suggestion for the future of this experiment?"

"I have," Aro said, looking toward the open door, where another vampire now stood in the shadows, waiting to be acknowledged. He was tall, with a shock of white hair gathered into a sleek pony tail. "Which is why I invited Caius to join us. Come in, come in. We mustn't lurk in doorways, brother."

Caius glanced sternly at Joham before sweeping into the room, black cloak flapping behind him. "What is it, Aro? I've been busy preparing for our departure and have very little time to deal with the antics of a lunatic."

His mouth was fixed into a pursed sneer, like a human who had just bitten into a lemon. Aro just smiled, amused at Caius's obvious disapproval.

"Now, now, Caius. Don't disparage my pet projects. I let you have your fun when you wish it."

"My fun doesn't put everything we've worked for at risk." He drew himself up and leveled another disapproving glare at Joham. The two had been at odds ever since the mad scientist first gained entrance to Volterra's stronghold, but Joham remained safe, protected by Aro's unerring enthusiasm.

"So dramatic," tsked Aro, turning back to Joham. "He acts as though I'm trying to bring down the Collective. As if I would."

Caius stiffened even further, turning into a pillar of hard marble. "If you only asked me here to insult me, brother, then I must take my leave."

"I asked you here because Joham would like to expand his program, and I thought it prudent to involve you in the discussion."

Caius scoffed, but his eyes gleamed knowingly. Aro needed an ally, and Marcus hadn't been troubled with the present in over a thousand years. He lived in an endless loop of lost love and longing, offering the use of his talent with no interest in the outcome one way or another. Aro was certainly the most public face of the trio, but that didn't mean he could operate fully independently. Caius waited patiently, knowing that by acceding control here, he might gain the upper hand later.

"Now, Joham, if you would be so kind as to explain your plans to Caius?"

"The first step is acceleration," Joham explained immediately. "Recruitment of males with talents which are advantageous to the Collective."

"We already do that," Caius said, scowling.

"Yes, but we must look within our ranks for more potential fathers. As of right now, the gene pool has been restricted by the secrecy of my project. I am seeking permission to take our quest to the public and involve the vampire community at large."

"With our registration records, it will be easy to find _volunteers_," Aro put in suggestively. "Continue, Joham."

"Expanding the program will mean we will need more human women as well," Joham continued. "We've been slow to come by talented vessels, and only producing one hybrid at a time. With an accelerated breeding program, we can raise and train the hybrids in classes, so to speak. It would streamline the whole process, provided, of course, we can find male vampires with the proper restraint for such a task."

"And why should we streamline a process which only serves to rob us of otherwise talented newborn vampires?" Caius asked disdainfully. "What, exactly do we gain?"

"I have been wondering about whether the mothers can be salvaged," Joham said carefully. When Caius's nostrils flared, he hesitated. "It is just a thought, of course. Drinking their mother's blood cuts ties from their human ancestry. It also starts the indoctrination to the Collective's way of thinking−teaching them that humans are inferior and that they exist only so that they can be of use to us."

"I admit, I have been curious since seeing Nahuel's conversation with Isabella, the mother he helped escape. How removed are they really from their human mothers? Is Nahuel simply weak, or must we be on guard for more misguided sympathy?" Aro said. "And what would happen if the hybrids reproduced? In your opinion, Joham, is it advisable? What is the science behind such a breeding program?"

"Genetically, it poses some interesting questions," Joham said thoughtfully. "Would the children be like their parents, half and half? Would the parents' talents still combine and rearrange? Are there recessive and dominant genes? Is it possible for them to breed at all? These are questions we will not know the answers to unless we expand our research."

"Facinating," Caius said dryly. "So much _science_ to explore. But I advise that we not waste any more time or resources on this project until we can see what the true value of the program is. Let them cut their teeth on these ragtag rebels in the New World. _If _they prove useful, we can discuss further expansions.

"Right now, we should be focusing on a more concrete problem. This potential mother, this Isabella, knows far too much. Not only that, but according to the information that Joham collected before he left, she is receiving assistance from at least one unregistered vampire. Who knows if there are other illegals, or whether they have changed Isabella in the meantime."

"I wonder if this Alice is the same one who evaded us so many years ago," Aro mused. "You remember, Caius, don't you? The oracle whose sire we destroyed? Think how useful she would be! We can clean up this setback and gain a powerful resource in one stroke."

"Useful or not, she has broken the law and must be punished," Caius insisted.

"I suppose," Aro sighed, gazing thoughtfully out the window again. "But consider the extenuating circumstances..."

"Which are?" Caius asked coldly.

"She can see the future, brother," Aro said dreamily. "What couldn't we do with her powers under our control? Who couldn't we conquer?"

"The precedent is dangerous. I don't like it. An example must be made. It has been too long since the vampire world was reminded about the consequences of crossing the Collective."

"You're right, of course," Aro conceded. "But perhaps we give her−and any other talented vampires present−the ability to pay for their offenses with service to their fellow vampires. A sort of indentured servitude? It would show our strength and benevolence at the same time."

"I don't like it." Caius pursed his lips and glared at Joham, who dropped his eyes deferentially. "But the fate of the lawbreakers can be decided later. Our preparations are nearly complete."

"Indeed," Aro said with a satisfied smile. "First thing's first. We leave tonight."

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><p><strong>AN: I know, I know, it has been...um...a really long time. Basically, I got to a certain point in this story and hit a wall. I also ran into some majoring editing issues and struggled with getting motivated for other reasons I won't bore you with. I'm playing in another fandom right now, too (shout out to the HP/twi peeps who have left me some love on Potions, Prongs, and Predestination!)...long story much shorter, I'm close to finishing this story. I have an estimated 3 chapters left to write, and several chapters written that need editing. I know where it is going, I just have to...get there. Yeah. So. Rambling complete. Thanks if you were brave enough to ignore my long hiatus on this story and open the chapter. I know its a short one, but it is definitely one of my favorites in the entire story. Evil vamps ftw! Thank you to katinki01, BittenBee, daisy3853, and HMonster4, who supported this plot bunny from its start all those months ago.**


	14. Chapter 14

**SM owns sparkley vampires. I own very little.**

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><p>"Again."<p>

Edward stared across the open space warily, judging the distance between himself and Emmett. The larger vampire stood nonchalantly, hands loose at his sides. They were on the far side of the large clearing where Alice believed the final battle would take place.

"You know what the definition of insanity is, Emmett?"

"No," Emmett said, grinning. "Enlighten me."

"Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result."

Emmett's smile grew. He held his hands in front of him, beckoning Edward forward. "Come on, little one. Show me what you've got."

Knowing that he had no other choice, Edward charged toward Emmett at full speed, bracing himself for impact.

These days, Edward often wondered if he, and everyone else gathered at that remote spot in the Ozarks, actually was insane. It was a more appealing theory than the alternative—that no one was imagining anything, and the end of the world was actually looming in the not-so-distant future. Shortly after Edward and Bella began training for hand-to-hand combat with Jasper and Emmett, Alice let Edward in on some of her visions. The experience dropped the bottom out of his world.

Alice's future was nothing like he thought it would be. He had imagined her visions to be crystal clear, perfect representations of the future at any given moment. When he actually witnessed a vision one day, complete with blank spots and hidden faces, the uncertainty was terrifying.

"Is it always like that?" he had asked, staring into her golden eyes with a mixture of shock and dismay.

"Lately? Pretty much," she had answered grimly. "For your sake, I will try to forget about the more disturbing images I've seen."

"It gets worse?" He didn't get a chance to find out. Alice's mind was focused with laser sharp intensity on the task at hand: preparing for the upcoming fight. When she thought of her visions at all, she was focused on still frame images of the beginning of the battle. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was hiding something. He wanted to ask her about it, but getting her alone was impossible.

Rosalie and Emmett's cabin was far too small for the army that had assembled there. Eleazar had kept his word, sending allies from all over before presumably making his way back to Volterra.

There was the Irish coven, Siobhan, Liam, and Maggie. Siobhan and Carlisle were old friends, and the two of them could often be found sitting among the trees, laughing and catching up.

There were the Egyptians, Amun, and Kebi, Benjamin and Tia, who had come despite Amun's deep reservations.

"The Collective has grown too powerful," he said to Alice upon their arrival. "Even so, I would not stand against them now were it not for certain… complications."

Alice's eyes gleamed as he stepped aside to reveal a small, spry young vampire with an impish smile. "This must be Benjamin," she said.

"How did you…" Amun started, then shook his head. "Of course. Benjamin, this is Alice. Alice, I presume you know why it is so imperative that we keep Benjamin from the Collective."

"I've seen the mechanics, but I'm sure we'd all love a demonstration."

Benjamin smiled broadly and bowed. "My pleasure." Straightening his back, he flung his arms open, palms to the sky. The earth began to rumble, quietly at first, then louder and louder until the ground beneath their feet split and churned, dirt roiling into a whirlpool of sorts. Alice and Amun leapt backward, but the ground on which Benjamin stood remained undisturbed.

"It works with any basic element, wind, water, earth, fire… Needless to say," Benjamin said with a wink, as the rumblings died off, "I am currently unregistered with the Collective."

Garrett was a Scottish-American revolutionary, a lone nomad who knew Carlisle from before the Collective took power. While Garrett had grudgingly participated in the initial registration process, he jumped on the opportunity to rebel against what he called "the corrupt oligarchy of power and control." Jasper took an immediate liking to him, and Garrett had an active role in troop training and strategy sessions soon after he arrived.

Next there were the Brazilians: Zafrina, Kachiri, and Senna. They were huge women, tall and dark, with long muscular limbs and wild hair. Bella privately thought them the most intimidating of all the "soldiers" who filtered through the make-shift camp, because there was not an ounce of human artifice to any of them.

Added to that, Zafrina had a gift that Alice believed would be enormously useful in the upcoming fight: she could project visions into the minds of anyone within a certain range. Zafrina helped Bella practice with her shield when Edward was busy, projecting a vision into the mind of any available vampire and coaxing Bella into using her shield to stop it. Despite hours with Zafrina and Edward, however, the most Bella had been able to do was feel her shield, wrapped tightly around her body like a sheer coat of rubber. No matter how hard she pushed, her mind could not move it a single inch.

Contributing to Bella's general despair was the arrival of a trio of sisters from Alaska shortly after the Irish coven joined them. Tanya, Irina, and Kate were as fair and perfect as Rosalie, but unlike Rose, all of them were unmated. Rumors flew around the camp that they were the source of the succubi legend of old: beautiful, undead demons in human form who led men into corporeal temptation before damning them to hell.

After hearing the rumors, Tanya remarked casually, within earshot of Bella and Edward, "You'd be surprised how easy it is to kill a man in the throes of passion. The first dozen or so weren't even on purpose." Then she widened her eyes in a practiced, innocent look, batting her long, blonde lashes artfully.

Bella had rolled her eyes and left Edward to finish their sparring lesson with Emmett alone. Tanya's attraction to Edward was no secret—anyone with eyes could see that she wanted him. Bella didn't know why this enraged her so much, especially given the fact that she and Edward could barely have a five-minute conversation that didn't end in sniped criticism or angry accusations. She chalked it up to the fact that Edward had become a teammate of sorts through their training and shared experiences, and Tanya's desires interfered with their work. That kind of distraction could cost them their lives, she told herself dourly.

Unbeknownst to Bella, Edward was wildly uncomfortable around Tanya, because if her words were suggestive, her thoughts were pornographic. He became paranoid she had somehow discovered he was a virgin and that her efforts were some sort of elaborate plot to deflower him.

"I can't believe you're not remotely interested," Jasper said late one afternoon. Tanya had spent the better part of the day with them, acting as a volunteer as Edward learned the finer points of vampire dismemberment. "Are you…gay?"

Edward sputtered for a second, for once taken off guard by Jasper's thoughts. "Uh, no? No! I'm not. I just don't care for blondes, you know?"

Jasper smiled and looked toward the edge of the clearing, where Bella was sparring with Kate. "Is there someone else?"

There was no missing the connotation in his thoughts this time. Edward shook his head and snorted bitterly. "Yeah, right. That would happen."

"You might be surprised," Jasper said with a shrug. "Just because you can't read her doesn't mean I can't." Edward opened his mouth to speak, but Jasper cut him off. "Nope, I won't say anything else. You're on your own with this one."

Jasper began to focus on his meditation exercises, and his mind went peacefully and frustratingly blank. "I think we're done for now. Why don't you go see if Carlisle needs a hand?" Jasper said, watching Alice approach with a wide smile on his face.

Edward turned and kicked at a boulder, intending to launch it into the air. He ended up only crushing it with his toes. Alice and Jasper snickered quietly behind him, and without a word he stomped off in Carlisle's general direction. The thought of being poked and prodded for another several hours was too much to take, however, so he took a slight detour, passing by Bella and Kate.

Kate was attempting to use her gift on Bella—an electric shock that she could direct out the palms of her hands. Although Edward hadn't felt it himself, he knew from the thoughts of those who had experienced it firsthand that it was more of a lightning bolt then a static shock. She had brought Garrett to his knees mid-attack two days ago, and Garrett was still unnerved.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," Kate announced, as she got a hold of Bella's midsection and again failed to shock her. "Your shield makes this useless. Wait a second…"

Her eyes lit on Edward, and as the thought formed in her head, he tried to back away. He was fast, but not fast enough. Kate leapt from Bella, using her body as leverage to fly through the air and tackle Edward to the ground.

"Do or die time, Bella," Kate said solemnly, gripping Edward tightly between her knees even as he struggled and bit. "This is for your own good." She placed her palms flat on each side of Edward's head.

He went limp immediately, the force of the electricity knocking him senseless for a split second. He would have preferred senselessness to what came next, though. He was a lightning rod in a storm, a conduit for pain. His screams rang through the trees, and here and there vampires emerged to see what was happening.

"Stop it!" Bella yelled, her face a mask of panic. Edward was helpless, his head gripped tightly in Kate's hands. In a battle, his death would be easy to orchestrate from this position. Bella recalled Jasper's instructions on how to decapitate an enemy combatant.

"Make me!" Kate yelled back, still forcing jolt after jolt through Edward's body. He was making a shrill keening sound now, his eyes screwed up in pain and his body contorted as if to ward off more torture. Bella's breathing quickened, her stomach roiled with fear and horror. The sight of Edward in so much agony pushed her over the edge.

"Stop it right NOW!" As she screamed it, she felt her shield expand, snapping outwards in a way it never had before. She thought she could almost see it, shimmering blue lines of power radiating outwards until they enveloped Edward, wrapping around him, keeping him safe. He collapsed, limbs splayed awkwardly, head lolling in Kate's hands.

Kate looked down at Edward, then up at Bella. Edward twisted from her hands after several long seconds, and she let her arms drop to her sides. He stood on unsteady feet, catching his breath.

"Bella?" Edward said cautiously. "What just happened?"

Bella's breaths were coming sharp pants. She wrapped her arms around her body and held on for dear life, shaking like a leaf.

"You used your shield," he said slowly. "You used it to protect me. Was that the first time?"

Without a word, Bella turned and fled into the trees, knocking down stray branches as she went. She didn't stop when she heard her name called, first by Edward and Kate, then by Emmett and Carlisle. She didn't stop until she was alone except for the birds and the trees. Of course, the birds fled as soon as they sensed her presence, so it was really just her and the trees.

Why had she reacted like that? Why that moment, instead of the countless times she had tried and failed before? Did it have to be Edward in danger, or could she make herself react that way to others? She tried to push her shield out again, but found it wrapped around her body just as tightly as before. Then she remembered Edward's pain, his tearless sobs and the way his long, slim body convulsed under Kate's ministrations. Slowly, her shield pulsed outward.

She gasped, and it snapped back into place. What did it mean?

Then, through the trees, she heard the sound of pursuit. One person on foot, running at top speed. Following her tangled path. Coming closer.

She made a split second decision and ran. She ran from Edward; she ran from Alice; she ran from the expectations of the army that gathered on the other side of the woods. She ran until she could no longer feel each individual step. She ran until the wind became part of her, coursing through her veins like blood, like life.

And still her pursuer gained.

She had nearly broken out of the trees on the other side of the wide wood when he caught her at last. He grasped her shoulders from behind, and with one fluid motion whirled her around and pinned her to the trunk of an ancient oak. Leaves fluttered down around them, knocked loose by the force of impact.

"Are you crazy?" Edward was furious. Initially, he had followed her to apologize (for what, he did not know, but clearly he had upset her). Then she began to run, and he feared she was leaving camp for good. He had no choice but to pursue her, to stop her from going.

"You could have met a human out here! Where did you think you were going? Jesus, we could be in Arkansas already."

She pushed against his chest, but he didn't budge—their strength was equal. "Why do you care?" she snarled. "Get out of my way!"

"What is your problem?" he yelled, letting go of her and turning his back to her. He stared up at the canopy above them, bits of sky filtering through the leaves. "Why do you have to make everything so _difficult_? We finally make some progress and you shut down and run away? How does that help anything?"

"_We_ didn't make progress," she said icily. "_I_ made progress. _I_ used my shield. _I did it_."

Edward exhaled forcefully, then turned back to face her. His eyes were pitch black, but his face was impassive, giving nothing away. "Yes, you did. You want to tell me why the hell that was so upsetting? We should be celebrating! It's what we've hoped for; it's what Alice keeps saying you have to do."

She didn't respond, she only stared, her lips twisted in contempt. To anyone watching her, it would seem as though she was utterly disgusted with the man who stood before her, but the truth was she was terrified. His hair was tangled from the wind and branches whipping against his face; here and there the forest had ripped holes in his shirt and pants. He was a mess—but in his eyes Bella saw someone she had begun to need, to depend on in a way she never had before. The thought that this boy, this _man_ who probably despised her, and rightfully so, was somehow essential to unlocking her powers unnerved her.

She crouched into a defensive position, baring her teeth.

Edward was nonplussed. "What are you doing?"

Slowly, she began to circle him. He dropped into a similar position on instinct.

"Really? We're doing this now?" he said fiercely. Bella growled in response, a feral, animalistic sound that ripped through Edward's chest and left him strangely aroused. He snapped his teeth, and the loud clack echoed through the forest.

Without warning, she lunged. He dove to one side, but she managed to grab hold of his shirt, ripping the sleeve of his shirt off in the process. Coming out of a forward roll, he captured her ankle in one hand and pulled her down to the loamy forest floor.

She shrieked in surprise, reacting without thinking. Kicking her legs into the air, she flipped herself, taking Edward with her. She landed on top of him, her feet at his head. A swift kick to his chin dislodged his hold on her ankle, and she scrambled on all fours in the opposite direction.

Before she got more than a few feet, however, Edward tackled her, iron arms clenched tightly around her waist. Bella's fingernails scraped uselessly against his chest, leaving no marks but effectively destroying what was left of his shirt.

They were propped against a pine tree now, half sitting, half lying on the ground, shredded fabric, wood chips, and clumps of dirt scattered around them. With one hand, Edward pinned Bella's left wrist to the tree trunk, and with the other, he held her shoulder down. Her right arm was trapped between them, twisted helplessly at an odd angle that wasn't painful, but was distinctly uncomfortable.

"Uncle?" he said, the edges of a smile teasing at his lips. She grimaced.

"Uncle your ass," she hissed, kicking out again, but she only managed to trap her leg between his.

"Ah, ah, ah," he said, his smile growing. "None of that, now. I think it's fair to say I win this round."

She twisted in his arms one last time and then slumped, held up by his grip on her arm. She glared up at him. His face was only inches away now, and with every breath she could smell him, his distinct scent of honey and musk infusing the air between them.

Edward stared as Bella's eyes grew darker. Her nostrils flared and she licked her lips, looking more like a wild cat stalking her prey than a woman.

"Say it," he breathed. He wasn't smiling now; he was trapped in her eyes. "Say I won."

At his words, her eyes grew darker still, the last tinge of orange-gold swallowed up by black. Her teeth flashed, and she struggled against his grip once more. Without the use of his mind-reading, Edward couldn't anticipate Bella's moves the way he could everyone else's. He wasn't prepared for a renewed attack. Her movement dislodged him somewhat—but not completely. He collapsed on top of her, still holding her down.

In the scuffle, he felt a sharp, burning pain at his neck, right below his left ear.

"You bit me!" he hissed in shock. A growl was her only response. She had lost herself, surrendering completely to her new nature. Well, if that's the only language she responds too, he thought grimly.

He still had the advantage over her, and he used it. He sank his teeth into an exposed piece of skin near her collar bone. It was an entirely different sensation from hunting, like biting through satin-covered steel. The venom that coursed through her veins was sweet and spicy, reacting to the constant flames in his throat with a flare of new heat.

She screamed, but stopped struggling for a moment, chest heaving underneath him. Slowly, he licked the wound, savoring the taste of venom as it healed shut. He peered up at her face, and what he saw stopped him in his tracks.

Bella's teeth were no longer bared, and the sneer had dropped from her face. In its place was a look of—wonder? awe?—that he knew he wasn't imagining. Not breaking eye contact, he placed one, deliberate kiss on the new scar, then shifted so his lips hovered over another bare spot of skin.

Carefully, he brushed the sharp edge of his teeth over her skin. She hissed, but it wasn't an angry sound. This time, his teeth only scraped the surface, not deep enough to scar. When she made no move to stop him, he pressed his tongue flat against her, and tasted green growing things, cinnamon, and lavender.

Now he was moving up her neck, tongue and teeth exploring the long column of her throat, the delicate arch where shoulder met neck, the dip between her breasts. She wasn't fighting him anymore; instead she shuddered and purred beneath him, hands opening and closing erratically with every new sensation.

"If I let you go, will behave yourself?" His voice was deep and quiet in her ear, and his breath felt hot on her skin. She nodded frantically, still not speaking. He released her hand, but kept her leg wedged between his to hold her close, nipping at the rounded part of her shoulder now.

She clung to him, and her hands found purchase on the bare skin of his back. She let her fingers wander downward, until they found the small of his back, the dip where his waist and hip met. She scratched him, hard, not bothering to be gentle.

He growled and loomed over her, pushing her easily into the earth. She didn't resist when he put one knee on her stomach to brace himself, or when he grabbed fistfuls of her blouse and ripped it to shreds, tossing the scraps to one side where the ruined tatters of his shirt already lay.

Briefly, he wondered what they would wear back to camp if they simply destroyed all of their clothing here, in this damp patch of earth isolated from the rest of the world. Then Bella ripped his jeans off his body in one, swift movement, and he stopped thinking at all.

He simply felt.

He felt the way she surrounded him, her smooth warm skin connecting with his until he couldn't tell where he ended and she began.

He felt the cool air caressing his naked body, bringing night and a hint of rain.

He felt her lips as they traced invisible patterns down his chest and over his stomach, leaving marks that no one would ever know were there. Some time later, he would realize that while her lips traveled anywhere and everywhere, they never touched his own.

He felt the friction where their bodies joined, over and over again, no sweat but plenty of heat.

In all the times he had thought about this moment, he always figured he'd be nervous. He worried that it would be work, that the girl would instantly recognize his inexperience, or that it wouldn't feel right.

None of those fears applied to being with Bella. It was effortless, natural. It was freedom, the sweetest pain he'd ever felt. He didn't have to think about how he touched her, he just knew. He never had to ask if he was doing it right, because her sounds told him he was.

And afterward, when they lay naked in the dark, wrapped around each other, not exhausted but momentarily spent, he knew that this was why he had to protect her. This was his reason, this woman, this bundle of contradictions and confusion and courage. The knowledge burned deep inside him, irreversibly written in blood on his soul.

The night was quiet—there was no one around for miles. It was the first completely silent moment Edward had had since waking into his new life, and he savored it, enjoying the melody created by Bella's quiet breathing mingling with his own.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for sticking by me even as I prove to be the world's worst updater. For your patience, I will be posting the next chapter later today.**


	15. Chapter 15

**SM owns sparkley vampires. I own very little.**

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><p>He should have known it couldn't last.<p>

The long, easy silence was broken when Bella jerked away, sitting up and wrapping her arms around her front in a gesture that strongly recalled her human past.

"What the _fuck_ was that?" She didn't sound angry though—more confused than anything. Edward took that as a good sign.

"Um, well…" He hedged, unsure whether she felt the same way he did. He didn't know if he could take her cold rejection. He settled on weak humor. "If you have to ask what it was, I must not have been doing it right."

Her eyebrows shot up and her mouth dropped open. She hadn't expected him to make a joke. The last couple of hours had been frightening and intense, and she was struggling to make sense of any of it.

"No, you were definitely doing it right," she finally mumbled, a small smile lighting up her face. Just as quickly as it came, however, her good mood fled. "No wonder Tanya follows you around like a golden retriever."

"What? No…Bella, we've never—" Edward stuttered.

"Whatever," she shrugged, standing up and looking around in vain for something to cover up with. "Not like I care."

Her studious nonchalance was too much for Edward. He snapped. "Don't do that. Don't you dare run away from this."

Clearing all emotion from her face, Bella turned toward him again. "Don't do what? I'm not running anywhere. I haven't even moved."

"You're a million miles away," he accused. "I don't have to read your thoughts to know that."

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't act like you know me all of the sudden. You don't."

"I know you better than you think," he shot back. "I know that you don't want to need anyone but yourself, and I know that you're afraid you might need me. Don't deny it."

He raised a hand as she opened her mouth to protest.

"Your actual thoughts might be a mystery, but Bella, I know you." He hesitated. "I think I always have. I think you know me, too."

"You've never had a one night stand, have you?" Her tone was icy, but Edward would not be deterred.

"No, Bella. I've never been with anyone that way before. "

She didn't know what to say to that, so she stayed quiet, staring out in the forest as if an answer to her questions would be written on the leaves. She didn't want to think about the implications of his words—she had lost her virginity as a human teenager, and the memory was now obscured behind a hazy cloud. All she could remember was how afraid she had been, and that the whole ordeal barely lasted ten minutes. Edward had been no shy virgin, but somehow, she knew he was telling her the truth. Besides, what reason would he have to lie?

Edward knew she was trying to evade a discussion; it was all over her face. She was doing everything to avoid looking at him. Her body was tilted away from him, and she was chewing on the inside of her cheek, a nervous habit he remembered she had as a human. He waited, sure that if he didn't speak, she would. He wasn't disappointed.

"I've never really had a one night stand, either," she said. Her voice was low, deeper than normal. "I mean, I slept with a guy in my study group once and we never really talked about it again, but isn't a one night stand usually a stranger you pick up in a bar or something?"

Edward didn't respond. She forged ahead, picking up speed and volume as she went. "I mean, it's not like I have a ton of experience. A few guys who I guess you could call boyfriends but really, it's not like I've ever been in love or anything. Not that you have to be in love to have sex. My parents always said you should be, but—"

"Mine too." Edward decided to put her out of her misery, interrupting the flow of her words. "My parents wanted that for me. They were very much in love." He closed his eyes and tried to recall their faces, but found with a tinge of pain that he could only vaguely remember what they looked like.

"My parents divorced when I was really young. My dad never stopped loving my mom, but my mom…" Bella didn't know how to finish her thought. Her mother was a free spirit, and gave her love to anyone and anything without a thought. The only sex talk Bella had received from Renee had been a quick lecture on contraceptives and a brochure from Planned Parenthood on communicable diseases.

"My mom belonged to the free love generation," she finished finally.

They were quiet again, and Edward allowed himself to stare at the curve of Bella's spine and the round edges of her small, plump breasts. Although things between them were far from settled, he allowed himself one moment of pure satisfaction. She seemed to be hesitating, torn between turning to face him and fleeing once again, despite the piece of herself she had just shared.

It was time to put it all on the line and hope for the best.

"Bella, I need you to know something." She straightened up, but did not turn, and he found himself longing to see her eyes. "Please, could you face me while I say this?"

As she turned, she gathered her long brown hair in one hand. The effect was startling—she looked innocent, like a doe that grazes in the forest, unaware that she is about to be shot by a passing hunter.

"Bella," Edward started again, then stopped. The enormity of the confession he was about to make scared him like nothing ever had, but he knew that she had to be told. "I think I understand why I'm so bound to you, and why once we met, I had to do everything in my power to help you."

He paused again, noticing the way Bella's nostrils flared slightly, ever the huntress, even as they talked. She was no innocent lamb; she was a mountain lion.

"I think…no, I know, that you…you are my life now."

One eyebrow arched, and her eyes widened in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry, that sounds really odd," he spoke before she could respond. "I'm not trying to scare you. I just realized tonight that you are the reason for everything. I would follow you to the ends of the earth, Bella. I don't have a choice. This isn't sentimental, and I'm not some lovesick fool. I'm bound to you, as surely as if we were chained together."

"So, what, you're my…my slave or something?" She frowned in disgust.

"No, not at all. I think…" he hesitated, but then forged on, "I'm your mate."

Silence. Disgust was replaced by the blank, stone cold stare that Edward was becoming accustomed to seeing on her face, the one that surfaced when she was angry or afraid.

"I've spoken to Jasper about it; it's almost like he knew what was going on between us before I did. Vampires mate for life, and it's not something they can control or even choose. It just happens. The mated pair, they're always better together. Stronger. Complete," he finished quietly.

Bella exhaled; Edward held his breath. He wasn't sure how he wanted her to react, he just knew that he needed her to recognize the truth. Like it or not, they belonged together. That was why he would protect her with his last breath. That was why she could only seem to use her shield to protect _him_ from danger. The key to their success—and maybe to the success of Alice's plan—lay in their reliance on one another.

When another five minutes had passed without a word between then, Edward sighed and stood. Time was still galloping forward. They still had to be ready to face the Collective. They still had lessons to learn, powers to master, battles to win. He extended his hand out to Bella, and she took it hesitantly.

"Oh," she said. It was a small sound, and she hadn't intended to make it. But his palm was warm, and his fingers were strong. When she grasped his hand, the feelings that had coursed through her earlier, when she was wrapped around him and secure in his arms, surged back. Touching Edward, _really_ touching him, was like being wrapped in a blanket that had been toasting by the fire.

In that moment, naked in the sparse moonlight, Bella realized what Edward already knew. Everything had changed.

||X||

They ran back toward camp, still holding hands. Bella had not yet verbally acknowledged what had passed between them, but the air between them had shifted. It was charged somehow, electric with things unsaid and unknown. As they ran, Bella practiced snapping her shield out so that it enveloped both of them. She found that physical contact with Edward helped her concentration immensely. She experimented with different shapes, first wrapping it as tightly as she could around the two of them, next leaving Edward's arm outside the shield, then protecting just his head.

Edward slowed as he started to pick up mental voices in his mind, tugging Bella to a jog behind him.

"We should probably figure out how to get some clothes," he murmured, making sure to keep his voice low, so any nearby vampires wouldn't hear.

This brought Bella to a sudden halt. Instinctively, she crossed her arms across her chest. Edward chuckled.

"You've been naked for almost two hours, and now you're shy?"

"That was with _you_," she hissed. The significance of her words hit Edward hard. He felt dizzy and content, and a little bit afraid. _This is real_, he told himself again.

_You'll find everything you need two miles northwest, under a huge pine tree_. _No one will be around, you should be able to make it back to camp without an audience. _

Alice's voice invaded his thoughts, planting the image of a pile of clothing nestled on the forest floor. She knew. Maybe she had always known, and that was why Edward hadn't been given a choice in becoming a vampire.

"Come on." He changed direction, pulling Bella in the direction of the clothing and away from the camp. They picked up speed, rushing through the dark trees at full tilt.

"Where are we going?" Bella laughed, surprise breaking through her quiet contemplation.

"Alice," Edward said simply.

They arrived at the tree, and there, exactly where Alice had promised, were two small piles of clothing, one for Edward, and one for Bella.

"Alice," Bella repeated, shaking her head. "It's kind of weird, don't you think?"

"Pretty much everything is weird these days, you'll have to be more specific," Edward said wryly.

"How she knew," Bella clarified. A look of horror crossed her face. "Do you think she _saw_…"

Edward shrugged uncomfortably, pulling on a pair of khaki pants. "Maybe. Probably. Let's hope she wasn't, ah, looking too closely."

"Who needs pay-per-view?" Bella muttered. She frowned down at the lacy black bra and panty set that had been laid across her clothing. "What does she think I am, some kind of runway model?"

"I thought all women enjoyed nice underwear," Edward said.

"Sure, but it makes it a little uncomfortable when someone else picks it out for you. Especially after having seen what she saw."

"I think after everything that Alice has seen, you should probably stop being embarrassed and—"

He trailed off, frozen and staring. Bella pulled her shirt over her head.

"What?" Bella looked around frantically. "What is it?"

"You were wearing that when…when it happens. You are wearing that, I mean. In the future."

Bella just stared blankly.

"In the vision of the battle Alice showed me," he clarified. "You're wearing that shirt, and those pants. "

"We should go," Bella said quietly. They turned without a word and ran, hands clasped again, as it to ward off the gathering gloom.

||X||

When they arrived back at camp, the atmosphere had changed considerably. A tense silence pervaded the group, and those who were not actively sparring sat in quiet groups, not moving.

Edward locked into Jasper's thoughts first. He was thinking of the visitor who had arrived shortly after the incident with Bella's shield. Automatically, Edward pushed Bella back, sinking into a protective stance.

"Where is he?" he called to Jasper. "Is he still here?" Frantically, Edward scanned the minds nearby, but found no unfamiliar voices.

Bella had stopped running when Edward shoved her backwards, growling at him under her breath.

"What's your problem _now_?" she huffed, shoving past him and continuing toward Jasper. "Where's Alice? We need to talk."

"She's not here," Edward answered, spinning in a circle to confirm visually what he already knew from Jasper's thoughts—the tiny clairvoyant was nowhere to be found. "She left with Nahuel about twenty minutes ago."

Carlisle approached the three of them with Esme in tow. Zafrina and Benjamin followed close behind. The thoughts around Edward picked up speed and intensity as they sped through his mind, and it felt as if someone had put his brain in a blender.

"Nahuel?" Bella said, momentarily breaking through Edward's mental confusion. "The hybrid who rescued me from Joham? What was he doing here?"

Her question was directed at Edward, but it was Carlisle who answered.

"The Volturi have come."

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><p><strong>AN: As promised, a second update. I will try to pull out of my update fail, but let's be serious. No promises, folks. **


	16. Chapter 16

**_I had some complaints about not being able to remember what was going on in the story. Fair enough, it has been...a while since I regularly updated. To sum up: Alice had a vision of the end of the world, and she needed an army to help her take on the Volturi Collective, a powerful organization that polices the vampire world. Edward and Bella are now new vamps, and recently...ahem...consummated their relationship. Alice's rebel army has gathered in the middle of nowhere to take on the Collective, and together with their friends and allies, they're going to try to defeat the most powerful group of vamps the world has ever seen. The Collective has another not-so-secret weapon, a group of human-vampire hybrids that they are planning to do some major damage with, created and engineered by mad scientist vamp Joham. Joham's firstborn, Nahuel, is not particularly excited about how the hybrids are being manipulated. The battle is coming. Soon. _**

**_When last we left our heroes, Edward and Bella had returned from camp after enthusiastically destroying a patch of forest and having a little come-to-Jesus about their circumstances as mated vampires. Alice is nowhere to be seen, apparently off with Nahuel, who recently made a visit to the rebel army. The Collective has arrived, and they're not far away._**

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><p><em>Earlier that day…<em>

Alice watched Bella tear into the forest, churning up loam and woodchips in her haste to escape. After a brief argument with Zafrina over who should follow her, Edward took off through the trees, his features set in grim determination.

Jasper opened his mouth to comment, his eyes twinkling. Bella and Edward's antics amused him, especially when their fights turned vicious. He told Alice the conflict between their emotions and their actions was something he had only experienced during brief interactions with human teenagers.

Before he could make another joke at their expense, Alice grabbed his arm, stopping his words in his throat. He recognized the telltale signs of one of her visions—her eyes rolled back, her pupils shook like a human in REM sleep, and her body stiffened and straightened like a beam of steel.

For once, the images that spun through her mind were crystal clear, and when she shook off her trance, relaxing the iron grip she had on Jasper's arm, she smiled.

"What is it, doll?"

"Something is finally going _right_."

"Edward and Bella?" he asked.

Alice's smile grew, and Jasper shook his head. "About time."

"Would you mind stopping back at the cabin to get some clothes and then running them out to that big white pine just north of camp?"

"Clothes?" Jasper asked. "What are they going to do to the ones they're wearing?"

Alice just stared at him, eyebrows raised. "Newborns get a little violent, Jasper. Or don't you remember? Anyway, Rose is around somewhere. She should know where to dig up some stuff for Bella."

"Why do I get the distinct impression you're trying to get rid of me?" Jasper mused as he turned toward the cabin. "You're up to something."

"Me?" She smiled innocently. "Of course."

Jasper hadn't been out of camp for five minutes when the visitor she had been expecting finally arrived. She hadn't been able to see his face or exactly when he would arrive, and she was only just beginning to suspect why that was.

The visitor crept in, not trying to hide, but clearly ill at ease. His footsteps were mostly muffled by the undergrowth, but there was no hiding the rapid beating of his heart, or the strange amalgamation of human and vampire that was his scent.

All around camp, vampires froze and watched him approach, some suspicious and instantly on their guard, others merely curious. Only Alice recognized him for what he was - an ally. She walked to meet him, purposefully imitating his human pace.

"Nahuel, I presume," she said. "Welcome to our camp."

He ducked his head, glancing from the Brazilians, who had clustered several yards away and were muttering hostilely, to where Benjamin practiced shifting earth into various formations as he watched the newcomer.

"I can't stay long, but it was vital I come here. At least that's what Eleazar told me."

So Eleazar had fulfilled his end of the bargain, Alice thought with some satisfaction and relief. Good. "Why didn't Eleazar come himself?" She had been unable to channel their enemies in the Collective stronghold for some weeks, and the lack of information unnerved her.

"Aro keeps his inner circle close these days," Nahuel said darkly. "We were lucky to have enough time alone to discuss you and your plans. As it was, I have had to be extremely careful to do nothing objectionable. Had I displeased Aro in any way, his touch would have revealed everything."

"Shouldn't you want to share your thoughts with your master?" Rosalie asked. She had no fear of the hybrid, and was the only vampire in the camp who broke past the invisible line between the rest of the group and where Alice and Nahuel stood. "Or are you some kind of double agent?" The scorn and disbelief was clear in her tone.

Nahuel hesitated. "I have been sent ahead as an advance scout for Joham and the others."

"The others?" Emmett asked, joining his mate. He placed a calming hand on her shoulder and she relaxed. Carlisle and Esme stood next to him, and it was obvious that even from a distance, Carlisle was taking careful note of every oddity that Nahuel presented.

"Yes. Aro has decreed that the hybrid army is to have its first engagement in a field of battle. We are the front lines in tomorrow's fight, a safety net for the rest of the guard."

As he spoke, Alice heard Jasper's path through the woods, his speed belying his frustration. She had known he would be upset with her for exposing herself to potential danger, but she also knew that his presence at the beginning of this parlay would have been detrimental to any alliances she might form. At least now, he would be able to read the emotions of the group, which she hoped would make him less likely to go on the attack.

"That's a lie, hybrid," he shouted from across the clearing. In a blink, he was standing in front of Alice, red eyes glinting furiously. "The Volturi Guard has no need for a safety net. I have seen them destroy hundreds of bloodthirsty mercenaries in less than thirty minutes with no casualties of their own."

Nahuel's eyes widened, but he stood his ground. "True. Alone, the Guard is invincible. And that is why using hybrids in this fight poses no threat to them. Aro wishes to see what we can do before he launches his true plan. If he loses a few hybrids, he can always make more. Obviously he needn't worry about losing any _vampire_ soldiers."

"So the hybrids can be destroyed?" Jasper pressed, leaning forward. "How?"

"We are as destructible as our vampire sires." Nahuel shrugged. "To my knowledge, no hybrid has been punished with a death sentence as of yet. But our skin is as hard as yours, and I imagine our hearts can be stopped like those of our human mothers."

"Why tell us all this?" Carlisle asked, joining Alice's side.

"Because I have been considering Isabella's words. Eleazar tells me you have changed her—that is fortunate. In the hands of the Collective, she would have been a formidable foe. Is she here?" He craned his neck, looking around the camp.

"Isabella is not your concern right now," Rose sneered. "What could she possibly have said to turn you against your father and masters?"

"We spoke of family," he said defiantly, looking her in the eye. "She asked about my mate, and my brothers and sisters. She showed concern. I … had never expected that."

"Humans are quite perceptive at times, are they not?" Carlisle asked, smiling softly. "What else did Bella say?"

"She asked if we had children. And when I told her that we were not permitted to try-" Emmett made an outraged sound of disbelief. "-she voiced concerns that Vanessa and I had already discussed. That we would never be free. That our children's children's children, if they should ever come to be, would remain with us, enslaved, to be used at the whim of the Collective. That is not the life we dream of, and we do not wish to live in the future that the Collective hungers for."

"And what future is that?" Carlisle asked, glancing at Alice. Her face was contorted in concentration as she willed a vision to come, armed with this new information. Still, her mind remained frustratingly blank.

"They will use us to blend into human cities." His voice turned cold, and when he met Carlisle's eyes, the older vampire could not suppress a shudder. "They will place us in positions of power—human law enforcement, government, military and media. The Volturi have great pull in such places already, unseen manipulators of conditions when it suits them. Hybrids can eat human food and weather sunlight much more inconspicuously than full-fledged vampires."

"What's step two?" Emmett asked skeptically.

"When we are numerous enough, we will rise up," Nahuel said simply. "Humans will be enslaved, their purpose to serve as glorified cattle. Of course, Joham dreams of breeding grounds for more experiments, and Aro insists that human captivity is the final solution to bring peace to vampire kind. Once your little army has been defeated, there will be none left to stand in their way. I could not stand by and let that happen. I am here to offer the services of myself and my people."

"Do you speak for the other hybrids?" challenged Jasper.

"I do." Nahuel nodded once. "In the nursery, where my mate heads the military training program, we are often left to our own devices, without vampire guard. Since my last return to the city, we have been weighing the options. We will stand with you, in hopes that we, too, may be free."

As Nahuel talked, every vampire in the camp began to gather, slowly creeping up to form a circle with Alice, Jasper, and Nahuel in the center. Nahuel now addressed the group, shifting from foot to foot nervously, preparing himself to defend an attack at a moment's notice.

"My brothers and sisters are just like you. We want to be free from the tyranny of our masters, and we cannot do it alone. Will you allow us to join you?"

Jasper looked down at the woman whose careful orchestration had brought them to this point. She looked up at him, and he was hit with wave after wave of emotion- love, fear, confidence, and tenderness. He closed his eyes, allowing her emotions to echo through him, keeping them from overflowing into the group.

"I'm afraid that I know the reason for the blank spots in my vision of the battle," she murmured, not breaking eye contact with her mate. No one spoke, waiting, breathless, for her revelation. "I can't see hybrids," she said finally. She looked at Nahuel. "You have been involved from the start, mixing in among our fighters. The blurred pieces of the battle, the blank faces...it's always been you and your brothers and sisters."

She looked around the circle, meeting each vampire's eyes in turn. "I cannot make you trust the hybrids, but I urge you to accept them. We need them to win. I can't tell you how, just like I haven't been able to give you the details I know you all wish I could. All I can tell you is if we want to free ourselves, we must also help to free the hybrids."

She turned back to Jasper as a round of low mutters broke out among the vampire army. "Bella and Edward will be arriving back at camp shortly. Watch for them, and fill them in on what's happened. I have to go with Nahuel. There are things we must discuss alone."

Jasper growled, but she reached up and placed a hand on his smooth cheek. "Do you trust me?"

He smiled, but his eyes remained guarded and worried. "With my life."

They kissed briefly, and then, with a nod to the rest of the camp, Alice followed Nahuel south through the trees.

Garrett was the first to speak. "Well, give me liberty or give me death, I say!"

Kate giggled, and the quiet that had fallen over the camp with Nahuel's arrival broke. One by one, the vampires in the clearing drifted away to converse quietly among themselves, or to continue preparing for the coming fight with renewed urgency.

Jasper waited uneasily where Alice had left him, looking to the northeast and wondering what on earth he was supposed to tell Edward and Bella when they returned.

||X||

"The Volturi have come," Carlisle said.

Edward put his hands to his ears again—a reflex he couldn't seem to stop even though he knew it would do nothing to block the voices. "One at a time, one at a time!"

Bella stepped around him, sliding her hand into his as she did so. The gesture didn't go unnoticed by the group, but wisely, no one said anything.

"Do you know when Alice will be back? Edward and I had … a bit of a breakthrough."

When no one spoke, she added, "You know, with my shield?"

"I can't imagine she'll be gone too long," said Zafrina, glancing sidelong at Jasper. "The Volturi will engage us tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Bella squeaked. "I only just figured out how to use my shield. How the hell am I supposed to protect an entire goddamn army _tomorrow_?"

Carlisle turned to her. "I know this is overwhelming, but-"

"Overwhelming?" Bella's voice rose an octave, and her eyes got impossibly wide as panic set in. "Overwhelming was getting creepy letters in the mail from a vampire stalker. Overwhelming was being told by a stranger in a trench coat that I was the key to saving the world. _Overwhelming_ was being kidnapped by said vampire stalker, being re-kidnapped, and then being changed into a vampire myself! You don't know anything about overwhelming, trust me."

"Bella, it's imperative you stay calm," Carlisle tried again, but Bella's rising panic would not be quelled.

Jasper sent waves of calm across the group, but that only served to escalate the situation.

"I know you're doing that," she snapped at him, fighting it even as her tight muscles relaxed. "But if you think for one second that you're helping anyone by putting me into some voodoo zen coma, then you are sadly mistaken!"

"That's enough, little one." Zafrina's voice boomed out, cutting through Bella's increasing hysteria and Jasper's wall of false calm. "You are a warrior. And in times of battle, even great warriors feel fear. But we also know that we must face the fight ahead of us, ready or not."

Bella stared at the wild woman from the Amazon, the vampire who she had secretly thought the most intimidating and fiercest of the ragtag army settled in the Ozarks. There was no doubt in Zafrina's burgundy eyes, only a blazing confidence tempered by deep strength.

Bella nodded, squeezing Edward's hand tightly and feeling him return the pressure. It was only when his fingers cracked quietly that she let go, afraid that she had hurt him in her moment of weakness. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. She was speaking to the group, but she looked at Zafrina, feeling as if she had let the warrior woman down.

"That's enough," Zafrina said, her fierce eyes uncharacteristically tender. "Now, let us see that famous shield in action!"

Bella stared at her wide-eyed as Zafrina positioned herself between Carlisle and Esme.

"With your permission, young one," she said.

Slowly, Bella nodded.

Zafrina's large hands clamped down on their shoulders, and Carlisle and Esme plunged into a sinister vision. Esme began to whimper, her eyes shut tight but unable to block the terrifying vision that projected. No one could turn it off except for Zafrina, or if Bella protected them from it.

Bella pushed outward, longing to feel the easy stretch and snap to her shield that had seemed so natural alone with Edward. Nothing came. She pushed harder, but faltered when Carlisle cried out in fear.

She looked at Edward, despair written all over her face.

He stood in front of her, blocking her view of the rest of the group and staring down into her face. "Concentrate," he whispered. "Remember how it was. Remember what we can do together. Remember what _you _can do."

Looking at Edward, remembering how easy he made things, Bella nodded. Slowly, she took a deep breath, filling her diaphragm and allowing her shield to expand with her stomach. It crept over Edward, then spread to Jasper. If he noticed, he didn't acknowledge it. Next, she tucked Benjamin into the safety of her protection. She bit her lip in concentration, willing the shield to stretch farther. _Finally_ it wrapped around Carlisle and Esme, and she was careful to separate Zafrina completely from those under her protection.

It was immediately obvious when she had succeeded. Carlisle sighed in relief, and Esme slumped, Zafrina's grip on her shoulder the only support keeping her upright. Zafrina beamed in satisfaction, and let go of them. When Esme collapsed, Carlisle sank down to examine her, running his fingers through her hair.

"I'm glad she's on our side," Esme said weakly.

Zafrina laughed and looked at Bella. "You see? It is only necessary to embrace your fear. Do not run from it. Become your fear."

"Good advice." Alice emerged from the forest, alone. As one, the scattered vampires in camp rose and gathered around her, eager for news.

"I don't have much more to tell you," she said wearily. "Nahuel took me to meet his mate."

"Vanessa?" Bella said.

"Yes. The Collective is right to keep her so sheltered; her gift will be a godsend tomorrow."

"Then it's true?" Tanya asked sharply. She stood straight-backed, shoulder to shoulder, with her sisters. "They will attack tomorrow?"

"At dawn," Alice confirmed. "It's as Nahuel told us. They will send the hybrids in first, then flank them with the members of the Guard. Aro and his brothers intend to make a grand entrance before they charge us with our crimes. They will make an example of us in front of the rest of the vampire world."

"Let them come," sneered Irina. She and Tanya exchanged a fierce smile. "They destroyed our mother many centuries ago, as well as countless other innocents. I'm tired of waiting."

"Don't let your thirst for revenge blind you," Jasper warned. "The Volturi are powerful for a reason, and things are far from guaranteed. We could fail."

Jasper's words brought forth raw, horrific images. Edward heard the roar of battle, and the sound of rocks breaking in his mind. The sounds were followed by a flash of light behind his eyes. He was becoming used to the burst of images from other vampires, but the light was so bright that it temporarily blinded him. He blinked, and the noise faded into the cacophony of voices and thoughts. He thought he smelled the faint scent of incense.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I am bound and determined to finish this. I am touched that so many of you are still hanging in there and waiting for updates. You really don't know what that means to me! Thank you SO much. Also, huge shout out to my bestie and beta BittenBee, who offers the most amazing comments and really insightful edits. Any mistakes that remain are all me, people.**

**This will be important moving forward, so I'm going to leave you with a quick reminder of Nessie's special talent from Chapter 6:**

_"She's talented, like your offspring will be, like many of the other hybrids. After a little experimentation, my father learned that those with an aura of _power_," he practically sneered the word, "produced better offspring. Nessie's mother was telekinetic, we think, although as she's dead, there's no way to be certain. Her father is telepathic. The combination of those two gifts turned out to be rather potent."_

_"I don't understand." [Bella] had lost the thread of his explanation somewhere around 'telekinetic.'_

_"What my father has discovered," Nahuel explained, his voice patient and slow, as if he was talking to a toddler, "is that a hybrid is much more likely to be born with some kind of innate talent if both of the parents, human and vampire, are gifted. Most often, the children exhibit a sort of inverted version of their parents' gifts, and the combinations can lead to some miraculous things. Nessie is a sort of living two-way receiver. Like... a radio."_

_Seeing that Bella was still confused, he went on. "She can read the minds of those she touches, like her father. But she can also project those thoughts into the minds of others, also through touch."_

_"Like a radio," Bella repeated, marveling at the thought._


End file.
